I had a most unusual experience today. I just listened to a live talk given by Maura Healey, Governor of Massachusetts (Democrat). I had the good fortune of sitting in the second row, only three or four seats away from her family.

This is the first time I have ever had an up close and personal encounter with a politician. To be fair, I did stumble across a Bernie Sanders rally at Boston Common when he was running for the Democratic nomination in 2016. However, I was barely able to see him in the distance over the heads of the crowd. Likewise, I had a brief encounter with, of all people, Governor Kristi Noem (Republican) of South Dakota. I had happened to be in the area during the time of the state-renowned Buffalo Roundup while touring the state. Noem took the opportunity to meet the public at this event, and by sheer chance she happened to stop right in front of me. I managed to capture an excellent photo of her riding a horse (Roem is in fact a cattle rancher and is, not surprisingly, an expert rider).

Hailing from a small town in New Hampshire, Maura Healey was elected governor in 2022, taking office in January 2023. She is the state’s first female governor and one of the first in the nation which is openly LGBTQ. Prior to that, she served eight years as the state’s attorney general. She attended Harvard as an undergrad, graduating in 1992 (in fact, it is not out of the realm of possibility that she and I have mutual friends who went that school) and playing on the women’s basketball team. Hence the Harvard Club connection. While at Harvard, she had absolutely no idea that she would someday enter politics. Then again, how many people know what they want to do when they begin their college experience?

She spent time on the second floor of the building speaking to some children prior to the main talk in Harvard Hall. These included, among other things, members of the Boys and Girls Clubs. The children sat in a section by themselves, not far from where I was. I would expect most of them were in their teens, and many were from underserved communities. She would be an excellent role model for them, and she gave them a chance to tell her what their communities truly needed.

Normally, I eventually get tired listening to people talk. However, high-ranking politicians have an unmistakable charisma to those who espouse their views (and contempt from those who do not). Healey was no exception. She had my undivided attention the whole time and I felt I could truly relate to what she was saying. She had a personality and demeanor that broadcast confidence and intelligence, again a hallmark of a good politician. Sanders had spoken like this as well but the impact o his speech was lessened by the size of the crowd.

One thing came to mind, however. If she is like most politicians, she likely caters her speech to the suit the crowd on hand. She is clearly a brilliant woman, and she is able to put that brilliance on full display when she is at a place like the Harvard Club which is full of intellectuals and fellow alumni. It’s possible that the children from the Boys and Girls Club may not have fully appreciated her talk, but they had had their own visit with her prior to that.

She addressed many issues relevant to the community: rising rents, climate change, social equity, and so forth. Everything she said made perfect sense to me and were not that different from what I would have done in her shoes (though I do not have nearly the social fortitude to do what she does). She went into how difficult the job was: in fact, she mentioned that she had just testified at a committee meeting and complained that there was no guarantee that the committee would heed her recommendations.

Not surprisingly, she spoke a lot about her time at Harvard. Some of it was more or less what one would have expected: what was your favorite course (Justice, as it turns out, which is a good choice for a politician), which House was she in (Kirkland), what her favorite restaurants had been (some of which I remember from my MIT days), and so forth. One thing that stood out, however, was the fact she attributed some of her success to a work ethic honed by spending time on the basketball team.

It had not occurred to me that a large number of high-ranking politicians spent time playing on college sports teams. Gerald Ford played football, for instance. In retrospect, it makes sense. College sports encourage people to work as a team, put skilled players in leadership positions, and require a work ethic to deal with practice at awkward hours. They serve as good training for someone who wants to excel in a public service position.

I suspect many of you are asking: if she played basketball, how tall is she? Amazingly, she is only 5 foot 4. She played point guard, a position where height is not that much of an issue. She even mentioned that when she was seated in a chair during her swearing-in ceremony, her feet didn’t even reach the floor! Needless to say, Yoda was right when he said size matters not.

The talk lasted about an hour and a half, though it went by extremely quickly. It was a question and answer session where she was paired with a co-host, another Harvard alum about her age. It seemed like a typical talk show interview with the second alum taking the place of Oprah. The Harvard band played a fanfare as she entered and exited the room (I was barely able to restrain myself from trying to cover my ears when they started blowing horns as I was exiting the hall).

I had nurtured a ridiculous idea of mentioning my plan for an intellectual salon to her and see if she would try to expand it throughout the state. I figured it would be way too much responsibility for me, but who knows? As it turned out, however, the crowd did not have much time to interact with her after the talk. The only people who really got a chance to shake her hand or take photos with her at the end were those seated in the first couple of rows. Not many people fell into that category as her family and entourage had the entire second section.

But we did.

My friend immediately got up after the talk to try to get a selfie with her. I followed her to the foot of the stage, thinking in the back of mind that this was likely a Very Bad Idea. A crowd soon gathered around us, and I frantically looked at the guests’ nametags to make sure that I was not separating Healey from her family.

Eventually we get to the front of the room. I had this insane idea of having my friend and me get a photo with Healey, but I decided to hold back unless the friend asked me to join the photo and the governor explicitly gave me permission. My friend got her photo, and I complimented her on her speech.

She turned to me and said, “Thanks, Andrew”. I was floored by her using my name, and it made it feel like a personal gesture. A smart move for a politician. And another possible explanation as to why everyone was wearing nametags.

From what I recall of the Noem encounter, the situation was similar. I was not close enough to shake her hand, but she seemed to be trying to talk to people. In Roem’s case, however, things were complicated by the fact that there were THOUSANDS of people at the Buffalo Roundup and the fact that she was mounted. On the other hand, ranching is a way of life in South Dakota and it helps your image if you are seen riding a horse as an active governor.

The second floor of the club has a room where all of the alumni who have served as governors, justices, senators, and so forth have their names chiseled into the wall. A few weeks ago, I went to a sketching event in a nearby room, looked at all the old men in the paintings, and asked her: how many women are on mentioned on the walls of these meeting rooms? The obvious answer was zero, but I had no way to prove it. Well, we got the answer tonight. The answer HAD been zero…until tonight, when Healey’s name was inscribed on the wall. Another glass ceiling goes down.

You will note that female governors are termed “governor”. You might wonder: why not “governess”? The answer is simple. The term “governess” is totally inappropriate for a female politician. It dates back to the time where the only way women other than parents could have any real power would be to serve as a live-in assistant dedicated to raising, educating, and disciplining a rich family’s children. The term made sense at the time when women could not aspire to truly enter politics.

Now to the obvious question: do I agree with her politics? I do, but that is irrelevant to this discussion. Political skills transcends party. Noem did a good job at the Buffalo Roundup appearance, taking advantage of an excellent opportunity for a photo op (in fact, a man in a car was filming her ride from about 20 feet in front of her). Not surprisingly, she is well enough regarded in Republican circles at this point to have been on the list of possible running mates for de Santis in 2024 (should he choose to run).

The photo was taken with a cellphone at the Harvard Club, so I apologize if it is as not as crisp as some other shots.