As a family experiencing layoff, it was encouraging to watch your weekly address which emphasized putting Americans back to work! You would think that the content of the video we watched online would have been so meaningful to us out here living in our RVs and wondering where we'll be two weeks from now that we wouldn't have even noticed seemingly insignificant things like body language. But we did. And since you're young enough to be my son, Mr. President, (notice I didn't say the proverbial "old enough to be your mother"...oops I guess I just did, didn't I?...no matter), I need to give you a little motherly suggestion regarding the body language of your address.
You know how every one always says, "Just keep your chin up?" I say to you, Mr. President, "Just keep your chin down." Try to look a little less like Leonard on "Big Bang Theory" and a little more like Chris Rock in "Head of State". And here's the reason:
You know that whole pre-election nonsense of elitism? I think I figured it out. It's the uplifted chin that mistakenly projects that image. I say "mistakenly" for this reason. It's my theory that the uplifted chin habit is one acquired by smarter than average kids like yourself around 7th grade. When above average intelligence starts appearing in a classmate at this age, teasing can begin. Now teasing itself can be responded to in varous ways - a physical response, ie, punching the other kid in the eye; a humorous response of laughing along with the other kids; or, as my theory goes, the development of "a stiff upper chin" as if to ward off the verbal taunting that's being flung in one's face. The teasers perceive the "teasee" as being arrogant which they translate in later life as elitism mainly because this student is, in fact, obviously above them in the intelligence department.
Now if you notice, President Bush had the opposite chin characteristic - he often tucked in his chin, ergo... well, we needn't go there anymore do we?
In between the lowered "ducking-for-cover chin" and the uplifted "fending-off-verbal assaults chin" is the perfectly placed chin position of Chris Rock in the "Head of State" addresses.
So my gentle suggestion, Mr. President, is to "keep that chin down" because we do want the stimulus package to pass. And since my husband's getting tired of eating tuna casserole, to ensure passage of the package, could you manage to throw in a little smile once and a while as well?
