It Wasn't Astonishment, It Was a Sneeze

The most famous photo of recent times (while we wait for the truly famous photo to appear, the one which hasn’t yet been seen) is the one in which President Obama and his team are seen watching images coming out of Pakistan, in which they could apparently see the attack on the house where bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist in the world, was hiding as it was happening. All those present, except Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were watching the screen with interest, doubtless conscious of the gravity of the event they were witnessing. The exception among these serious expressions, committed but unassuming, like those of observers of a master class that they will later have to summarize, was that of Hillary Clinton, who was holding her chin and mouth at the same time as her eyes were displaying true astonishment. She was watching as anyone would watch an event like the one that would soon hit the headlines, for even though in that team felt they were doing the right thing (“Justice is done,” said Obama when explaining the terrorist’s end), the truth is also that the deployment must have been dramatic, with all the sound and fury of an attack which is being carried out with the intention of arrest or death. The truth is that the photograph affected the whole world, and Hillary Clinton’s expression gave it enormous sentimental significance; in such a moment, she was the only one expressing what the mere mortal would express, whether or not they were in agreement with the proceedings of that unusual terrorist hunt. Now, it turns out, according to what Clinton said in Rome, that she was suffering from the effects of the allergies that always grip her around this time, and that she probably put her hand like that, on her chin and almost to her nose, definitely covering her mouth, because she feared a sneeze. I’ve had allergies since I was two; spring is a curse for me and for all the allergy sufferers I know, and I don’t doubt that the same evil of every spring is attacking her. However, I must disagree with her; we allergy sufferers don’t place our hands like that. From what I’ve observed in so many fellow sufferers of this spring misfortune, what we do is put our finger (generally the index finger of our right hand) under our nose; in that way we try to ward off a stentorian sneeze, particularly if we are in a meeting or a public place where those present could feel disturbed by the sound escaping from our noses. In any case, that is what Hillary Clinton has said and, at least for me, it made me forget the fiercely human quality of her face. It wasn’t astonishment, it was a sneeze. That’s too bad; why did she have to explain it?