West Winging It

Living in Washington, DC in the 90s was probably one of the only times in my life I ever achieved the double feat of Right Place and Right Time. After college, I moved to DC and began work near Capitol Hill.

Then the television show The West Wing aired.

Being young, smart, and a little bit geeky was suddenly cool. Not in a Hogwarts sort of way (though Harry Potter was arguably the harbinger of the Smart is Cool movement). No, it was an inside-the-beltway cool. Where walking down a hall speaking incredibly fast about policy and politics was simply what the popular kids did.  Wonk wasn't a bad word at all. 

The West Wing seemed to be perpetually ripped from the headlines. Scandals, political battles, even the people and organizations that popped on my screen on Wednesday nights were the fictionalized versions of what we read about every morning in the Washington Post.

I achieved another feat of Right Place and Right Time last week, when I finished reading Rob Lowe’s memoir Stories I Only Tell My Friends just a day or two before visiting the White House for a holiday reception.

I fully admit to elementary school crushes on St. Elmo’s Fire Rob Lowe and -- somewhat interchangeably -- all those Brat Pack guys. But whenever I picture Lowe, I see him as Sam Seaborn. So while it was fun reading about Lowe’s life before fame, or his string of Fabulously Famous girlfriends, I felt warm, fuzzy, and downright nostalgic reading his reminisces of his time on The West Wing.

I was full of this warm, fuzzy nostalgia when I took my son Sam to the White House for a holiday reception. I give plucky Sam lots of credit for trying to talk his way through a guarded partition towards the West Wing and the Oval Office. It didn’t work, but someday Sam will get his Right Place Right Time moment.

An interesting tidbit from Rob Lowe: White House staffers don’t really do the fast-paced talk and walk that was the epitome of West Wing-ness. Nowadays, if they find themselves walking the corridors, talking like Aaron Sorkin had scripted their dialogue, they high five each other and exclaim, “Hey, we just ‘West Winged!’”

Yes, indeed -- geeky is still cool. 

Happy Holidays, everyone! To celebrate the season, I leave you with one of my favorite holiday moments from The West Wing. Get those tissue boxes ready -- Leo gets me every time!