Hoe een kalkoen

De kans is groot dat onze lezers net als wij denken: de memoires van Georges W. Bush, die geven we a miss, die laten we voor wat ze zijn. Handig dus dat je hier en daar de spannendste passages geciteerd leest. Deze bijvoorbeeld: hoe een kalkoen de betrekkingen tussen de VS en Saoedi-Arabië redde. De setting: George W. heeft de Saoedische kroonprins op bezoek en het wil maar niet leuk worden:

"…the crown prince, flowing robes and all, was climbing into a Ford F-250 pickup….I point out the different kinds of hardwood trees, the native prairie grasses that Laura had planted, and the grazing cattle. The crown prince sat silently. I wasn’t making much headway.

Then we reached a remote part of the property. A lone hen turkey was standing in the road. I stopped the truck. The bird stayed put.

“What is that?” the crown prince asked.

I told him it was a turkey. “Benjamin Franklin loved the turkey so much he wanted it to be America’s national bird,” I said.

Suddenly I felt the crown prince’s hand grab my arm. “My brother,” he said, “it is a sign from Allah. This is a good omen.”

I’ve never fully understood the significance of the bird, but I felt the tension begin to melt…The next day, I got a call from Mother and Dad. The crown prince had stopped in Houston to visit them. Mother said he had tears in his eyes as he recounted his time in Crawford and talked about what we could achieve together. For the rest of my presidency, my relationship with the crown prince — soon to be king — was extremely close. I had never seen a hen turkey on that part of the property before, and I haven’t seen one since.

Fascinerende lectuur.

Het prentje: John James Audubon (1785-1851), Birds of America: Wild Turkey.