suddenly you think about whether this is a qualification for, say, being commander in chief: mother of five. um, yes. yes. *that* is an executive position. in all seriousness, the most effective people i've ever seen are moms like this: you can't believe how focused, smart, and organized they are. i do take this seriously. also i would say the very best people morally in our culture, for real, are basically mamas. like: you're always likely to catch the charaismatic male politician in a sex scandal or discover he's a crackhead. but not mama.