I’ll admit it. Last night, when the host announced that Carthage graduate Laura Kaeppler was the new Miss America, my two fists shot above my head like Rocky Balboa and I screamed like I have not screamed since the Packers won the last Super Bowl. And right there with me, screaming just as loudly and jubilantly, was Dr. Dimitri Shapovalov, one of my colleagues on the music faculty…. one of the most learned men I have ever known- a towering intellectual and brilliant educator- just as caught up in this drama and spectacle as I was. I don’t know that either of us were fully aware of it in the moment, but in retrospect there was something a little bit absurd about two college professors watching the Miss American pageant, watching it anxiously, and then erupting as deliriously as we did at the final results. It’s a testament not to how much the Miss America pageant matters…. but rather how much people matter. And because someone we taught – and liked – and cared about was on that stage, we suddenly found ourselves caring very deeply about the Miss America pageant. And sixteen hours later, I am still feeling the happy, fluffy comforts of Cloud Nine! Laura is a fantastic choice to wear that crown- and it is so exciting to think about people across the country coming to appreciate her energy, her passion, her kind-heartedness, and her talent.
I have to admit to having some fascination with Miss America as I was growing up. I think part of what fueled by interest came in 1970 when a student from Luther College, Cheryl Brown, competing as Miss Iowa, made history as the first African-American woman to compete for Miss America. (Oddly enough, I still remember her name after all these years.) My folks were so tickled by that and made sure that we all watched that telecast… and maybe that’s how I got hooked at the tender age of ten. I remember that back in those days the final five contestants would be sequestered in a sound-proof glass booth (with a little crown stenciled on the door) and brought out one at a time so they could each answer the same question without benefit of hearing any of their competitors’ responses. Such drama! And for some reason, I can still vividly remember another Miss America pageant from a year or two later when the Miss Congeniality award (for being especially nice) was given to Miss Vermont….. who ended up also being the first runner-up. I was really pulling for her to win it all, so that was a painful bit of disappointment for my young adolescent heart when she finished just out of the running. Funny the memories that attach themselves to us and refuse to let go!
I may have cared about the Miss America pageant back then, but I have never cared about it like I did last night, thanks to Laura being on that stage. And it helped me realize that I was guilty of a sweeping generatlization. I wrote these words in a recent blog entry about Lessons Learned in 2011: <<<Laura is bright, kind, interesting, compassionate, talented— all qualities that I would never have associated with the world of pageants or the typical contestants that populate them. As I watched Laura at her big send-off event in Kenosha, I realized that I have long succumbed to the temptation of jumping to convenient conclusions and making sweeping generalizations about the women in pageants… partly because it’s easier and quicker in this rapidly moving world of ours to work with generalizations – and also because it creates a world of entertaining black & white versus subtle shades of gray. I was so apt to think of them all as sewn from exactly the same glitzy cloth, and I suppose the Miss America organization encourages that sort of thinking by adhering to such a narrow range of visual beauty. But seeing Laura on this particular stage – knowing what an interesting, vibrant human being she is – made me realize how Archie Bunker- ish I’ve been with this issue. And don’t we all succumb to the allure of sweeping generalizations, in all kinds of situations and arenas? >>>
Well, as I watched last night’s pageant, it made all the difference in the world to know one of those contestants personally, because I found myself looking at all of those women with much more affectionate, appreciative eyes. . . even if I was rooting for all of them to go down to defeat! 🙂 So for instance, when it ultimately came down to two final women, Miss Wisconsin and Miss Oklahoma, facing each other and literally looking into each other’s eyes with apparent tenderness, that seemed completely real to me in a way that it would not have once upon a time. And at the end, when all of the contestants gathered around Laura to congratulate her, it didn’t seem like an empty gesture, choreographed by the pageant organizers, but a genuine expression of the authentic affection which these contestants develop for one another through this experience.
Of course, the curmudgeon in me wishes that some things about this pageant were different. It would be so nice if the pageant organizers didn’t seem to be operating within a very narrow notion of what is beauty…. It would be nice if the judges weren’t quite so show-bizzy (the creator of “The Bachelor?” blech!) ….. It would be nice if those five finalists were given more than 20 seconds to answer what turns out to be remarkably complex and challenging questions…..It would be nice if more time and attention were given to the platform of each finalist, especially since Laura’s platform (reaching out to children with a parent in prison) was so compelling and unique…… and it would be especially nice if there was not even the vaguest hint of reality TV in the proceedings, meaning that the whole thing where the 37 non-finalists get to vote to save one person from elimination has got to go ……
…… but forget all of those curmudgeonly complaints. I could not be happier for Laura and her family and close friends – and for all the rest of us who can say “I know Miss America!” That was the essentially the Facebook posting of dozens of Carthage students and alums last night – and this morning when the news finally reached the students of the Carthage Choir on tour in Ireland. We know Miss America! And in our completely biased opinion, no one lovelier in the ways that matter most has ever worn this crown.
pictured above: Laura Kaeppler, right after being crowned Miss America. I like this picture because it captures the joy of the moment right before the tears really started to do some damage to her mascara. Something else I loved about those last moments of the telecast is the sight of Laura mouthing “thank you so much” over and over again.