I can't call myself classy, it's for other people to say that. I can only say that this is what I have seen, this is what I have imbibed, and this is how I am. Class is intangible, almost indefinable. It is a summing up of the parts so that they become more than the whole. It has to do with dignity, subtlety, with a layered subtext where much more is expressed because it is hidden. It's got very little to with wealth and money, and much more to do with an attitude that comes from being comfortable in your own skin.
All of us, in certain situations, want to put on our best self. But it's when you're not doing it for public consumption that counts. Like eating. When I'm by myself and nobody's watching, do I gobble up my food? Do I eat it elegantly? Do I behave in the same way when there are people for whom I want to put my best foot forward?
My father was very classy. My husband is very classy. An unspoken aesthetic touches everything they did or do.
My parents have been the two most important anchors in my life; they taught by example. Both of them were public people with public personas, but they also had private personas not disconnected from the public ones....
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01:33 PM, Apr 24, 2012
