Page 91 of 28 Summers
My BlackBerry.
2. Song you want to hear on your deathbed?
“Let It Be.”
3. Five minutes of perfect happiness?
“Cool-down after a good, hard run on the treadmill,” Ursula says.
“Do you want to think about that answer a little longer?” Leland says. “Maybe mention your husband or your daughter?”
“Oh,” Ursula says.
Sixty-degree day, blue sky, fifty-yard-line seats, cashmere sweater and jeans, sitting between my husband and daughter, Notre Dame versus Boston College.
4. Moment you’d like to do over?
Accepting money from the NRA.
Brave answer,Leland thinks.This interview is looking up.
5. Bad habit?
Correcting people’s grammar.
6. Last supper?
“I don’t understand the question,” Ursula says.
“What would you like your final meal to be?” Leland says.
“You mean before I die?”
“Yes.”
“People are interested in this?”
“Very. It’s a little more in depth than just asking your favorite food. You get to pick a meal.”
“Oh,” Ursula says. “Cereal, I guess.”
“Cereal?”
Rice Krispies with sliced banana and skim milk.
7. Most controversial opinion?
“Men are not the enemy,” Ursula says. “I realize that’s going to beverycontroversial for your readership. But what I’ve found in Congress and in my professional life in general is that men want women to succeed. It’s the women who are cloak-and-dagger.”
“Hmmmm,” Leland says. She’s not overjoyed with this answer. The whole basis ofLeland’s Letteris that women can learn and grow from the experiences of other women.
“I hope that changes by the time my daughter, Bess, is grown,” Ursula says. “When my mother was young, she was focused on helping my father succeed. That was her job. And then in my generation, our generation, women became focused on their own success. The logical next step is that women will become not only supportive of one another butvestedin one another’s success.” She pauses. “But we aren’t there yet.”
Women have to support each other, be vested in one another’s success. Men are not the enemy.
8. In a box of crayons, what color are you?
“Black,” Ursula says.
