I just finished reading a wonderful article in the April issue of The Atlantic, which described a meeting that President Obama had with Marilynne Robinson.  This absolutely enchants me.  I’ve always been an Obama supporter, but now I’m seriously in love with him.  First, Robinson is one of my favorite writers.  Second:  The PRESIDENT met with a NOVELIST because…well, I can’t state it any better than he did:  “When I think about how I understand my role as a citizen, setting aside being president, and the most important set of understandings that I bring to that position of citizen, the most important stuff I’ve learned I think I’ve learned from novels.  It has to do with empathy.  It has to do with being comfortable with the notion that the world is complicated and full of grays, but there’s still truth there to be found, and that you have to strive for that and work for that.  And the notion that it’s possible to connect with someone else even though they’re very different from you.”  That’s why I read, that’s why I write, and that’s why I am now the President’s most starry-eyed and abject fan-girl.