The title of this blog post that you’ve only just begun to read is very misleading. Because I didn’t really ‘meet’ President Jimmy Carter, like to have even a brief conversation with any level of meaningfulness. I stood in a receiving line to shake his hand, twice, and the resulting photo tells the story.
It was 1989, and I was an ‘Account Coordinator’ for the DC public affairs firm that represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And despite my low level status, I was even a ‘registered foreign agent’ in this role (which never really lived up to being as cool as it sounded). Anyway, the Saudis had a cultural exhibition traveling around the US, drumming up some positive vibes (which proved to be well timed given Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait the following year), and this exhibition visited Washington, DC, Atlanta, New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles. And despite being a junior nobody whose role was to find venues for the troupe of Saudi folkloric dancers to visit, it was my first real experience with business travel and related gala events.
When our tour reached its second stop, Atlanta, the gala opening demonstrated the Saudi’s ability to bring out political VIP’s, and so President Jimmy Carter was their trophy guest at opening night. I walked through the receiving line and shook his hand, and that was that.
Among our team was a former White House photographer, Karl, an amazing guy who had great stories, and he asked me, “Have you been through the receiving line? I’ll get your picture.” I let him know that I had already had my handshake, and so, photo op missed. And he said, “It’s not a long line, go again, and look at the camera!”.
So I got back in the line, just moments after already having been through it. And I shook President Carter’s hand, again. And I remembered to look at the camera. He didn’t. He looked at me like he was thinking, ‘weren’t YOU just here?’
I’m glad to have ‘met’ him, twice kinda. I learned that ‘grip and grins’ are better when you’re looking at the person whose hand you’re shaking. But from Jimmy, I have also learned from his example of the service he provided to America, and to the world, long after his presidency. Thank you President Carter, and may you rest in peace.