Clinton is bringing lifelong commitments to premier Cabinet post

BOSTON — It was a moment bound to give anyone second thoughts about Hillary Clinton's nomination as secretary of state: Rush Limbaugh called it a "brilliant stroke." If Rush, who had famously said America wasn't ready to see Clinton age in the Oval Office, was ready to see her age at Foggy Bottom, what was I missing?

Of course, it turned out that Rush was being his old cynical self. He wasn't praising Hillary's talent, but Obama's cunning at keeping his enemy close.

So it went with much of the analysis before and after Clinton was chosen for the premier Cabinet post. The political story line asked if she would be a "teammate" or a "rival" in the "Team of Rivals" metaphor du jour. And was she close enough to the president to be his international right hand?

The psychological story line asked, however, whether we were getting yet another new Hillary. A National Review blogger described her as an "enigma who is best seen in stages; as a series of parts, not a whole."

A series of parts? Not a whole? Hillary, lawyer, wife, mother, first lady, senator, presidential candidate, secretary of state. I was reminded of Mary Catherine Bateson's classic book, "Composing a Life," which describes life as the art of improvisation.

Life is not a straight and narrow march of achievement, but a quilt made of many parts. Reading the trajectory of many women's lives with their interruptions and conflicts, twists and turns, Bateson saw creativity, not confusion. "These are not lives without commitment, but rather lives in which commitments are continually refocused and redefined."

Hillary Clinton wanted to be president and lost. But one of the lifelong commitments she will bring to her new role is to improve the rights and everyday lives of the world's women. These issues will not be the "women's page" in her portfolio, but integral to the way she views the world and, perhaps, to the way America can exercise its power.

Says Melanne Verveer, who traveled with first lady Hillary Clinton through more than 80 countries as her chief of staff, "she didn't just drop by the palace." She was always engaged in the struggles of women. In 1995, Clinton led the U.S. delegation to a U.N. conference on women's rights in Beijing. There, she electrified the delegates and challenged the hosts, saying "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights, once and for all."