Wit & Attitude Quote by Gale Norton

The line reads like a humblebrag in hiking boots: a public official so busy governing that even her aides can’t wedge nature into the calendar. On its face, it’s self-deprecating and domestic - the kind of backstage detail meant to humanize a person whose day-to-day work can feel abstract or bureaucratic. “My schedulers” evokes the machinery of government: staff, protocols, constant triage. “Driven crazy” adds sitcom energy, a wink that signals she’s not a remote technocrat but a person with a body, habits, and cravings.

The subtext is reputational. For a public servant associated with land management and environmental policy, hiking is more than leisure; it’s a symbolic credential. Saying she can’t “fit hikes” implies she belongs outdoors, that her relationship to public lands is tactile rather than purely regulatory. It’s also a savvy reversal: instead of being accused of ignoring the environment while inside a Washington bubble, she’s presenting herself as someone pulled away from the trail by duty, not disinterest.

Context matters because schedules are power. Admitting you can’t control your own calendar is an old political trick: it frames you as needed, in demand, essential. At the same time, it softens authority. She isn’t boasting about closed-door meetings or legislative victories; she’s lamenting missed hikes. That’s not accidental. In an era when public trust hinges on authenticity cues, “I want to hike but can’t” performs both work ethic and relatability, while quietly staking a claim to the landscape she helps oversee.