A lot of people have asked me, “What exactly did First Lady, Michele Obama, write in response to your suggestion that she get goats?” Other, less sensitive people, have asked, when they know about the form letter, “Well, what did you expect?”

First of all, the form letter I received wasn’t even from the First Lady, who was the person I had addressed my letter to. It was from President Obama. Secondly, there’s a story behind this story which I hope will explain, even to the most insensitive of you out there, why the form letter from the White House stung so deep. Here is that story.

I have an aunt who lives in Grass Valley, California and she is my dearest and sweetest relative. She is the sort of relative who can stay with you for two weeks and at the end of those two weeks, when it’s time for her to leave, you weep. Anyway, she taught kindergarden for 25 years and whenever I visit her in her home town, every where we go, she runs into old students who stop her and tell her how much they loved having her as their teacher in kindergarden. Sometimes, you can see that they have these little tears of warm emotion welling up in their eyes.

But, back to the plot of my story. Just a day or two after Obama’s historic inauguration, my Aunt Anne was visiting me and I showed her a copy of the first letter I’d written to Michele Obama (the one I later figured out that Laura Bush made off with somehow). She got a kick out of the letter and said she was going to write one too and could I help her look up the address on the internet.

Months went by and I never did hear boo from the White House. Every once in a while, when I’d check my mail, I’d wonder why I had not yet received a response. Eventually though, I forgot all about the whole episode and it was not until after another few months when my aunt Anne happened to be in town again that I thought about it. We were driving around looking for an ice cream parlor somewhere or other and she said, in an offhand sort of way, “Oh, I got the nicest letter back from Michele Obama.”

I said, “WHAT?!” and my aunt Anne said, “Yes, I got a personal note and she said how much my note meant to her. It was hand written and signed by her and it was on the prettiest paper. It was so nice that I kept it.”

Then, I said, thinking real fast, “What did you say in YOUR note?”

She said, “I just told her that I thought she was a real cute lady and that I was happy that she and Barack and those cute little girls are in the White House.”

Maybe now you can understand my disappointment. Why did my aunt Anne get this amazing personal letter while I got a blow-off form letter from the wrong person? Does White House staff simply take one letter in a thousand and have the First Lady write a personal response to it? Did Aunt Anne’s letter touch the First Lady in ways I don’t understand? Should I have begun my letter by telling the First Lady that I think she is real cute?

Anyway, this is a mystery I ponder sometimes when I can’t fall asleep. If you have insights, let me know. Also, if you happen to BE First Lady, Michele Obama, know that while I did neglect to tell you how cute you are, that I DO think that you are really, very and extremely, cute.