Romance is in the air

What does a man do after winning the most historic election of our lifetime? Take his wife out for an Italian dinner of course.

By now, you know that I am hooked on anything Obama. In my lifetime I've never had so much hope, so much belief in any public figure, let alone a politician. If I were a teenager I think I would have posters of the Obama family all over my room. And I have to confess that I think my enthusiasm is, err, rubbing off on my two-year old daughter, who has now taken to calling one of her dolls 'Baby Obama ... just like the man on TV, mama...'

Of all the US post-election stories in the past two weeks, the one that touched my heart most was the one about Barack Obama and wife Michelle stepping out for a dinner date the weekend after making history. The US President-elect and the future First Lady had a three-hour long dinner last Saturday night at a restaurant in their home-town Chicago. The very same restaurant where they dine every Valentine's Day.

The couple politely refused an invitation to dine in the private back room and feasted in the restaurant's main room among the other (gawping) customers (and the obligatory large Secret Service contingent).

So this is it. The Obamas have ushered in the new era: not of peace, or of a sound economy, or of international cooperation - although those will hopefully come too - but of romance. Can't you see? With their little evening of celebration in a normal way - just like you and I would - they make us see how a bit more romance in this world wouldn't do us any harm, but would leave us all with a glow in our hearts.

Which, of course, brings me again to why I love this couple: because they are so real. They're not Tony and Cherie Blair, who'd probably have gone out with Bono and Britney to celebrate with glitz. And they're not Posh and Becks with their non-smiles; posing their way through any celebratory moment.

Yes, romantic gestures are, as of now, the way forward. We all have to go out of our way to pass on the warm glow of romance because it is contagious and, more importantly, it makes the world feel less threatening. If we start doing it at home and then spread it in our circle of friends, it will grow and grow, and - you never know - it might even get to Bin Laden.

So this morning after you read this, go and smack your hubby with a kiss or leave your wife a note under her pillow saying how much you love her laugh. And it needn't even be a self-pitying moment for us non-couples: because you don't have to be a couple to be romantic. You don't have to be a friend even. One of the most touching things that happened to me lately was a handwritten note - from a person I didn't know - thanking me for a book I had recommended in an article and saying how much she had loved it. How nice that someone actually took the time to write by hand, in this day and age.

Actually, now that I've stopped to think about it - glowing, heart warming moments can be in the smallest of things: like the bouquet of pink carnations which the florist up the road gave to a surprised and beaming Pippa; or the thoughtful message from a friend who took the time to let me know that I'm on her mind, even though I know that she herself is going through a dark night; or being treated to a surprise birthday cake (for the first time in my life) by my extended family; or being told, in innocent honesty, by six-year old Sam that he noticed that I had cut my fringe and how he liked it better like this. Yep. These are moments which unknowingly, but thankfully, make our days - we just need to have more and more of them.

The Obama way of life doesn't promote the pressure to be cheerful. Good Lord, I think we're done with always striving to be cheerful. All we have to do is put into practice the art of romance. The moral of the story, if we take the new Mr President as a case in point, is that if we are happy with the little joys of life, then it's easier to achieve our dreams, because the roads of life will open up for us.