November 13, 2008
The Spiritual Realignment
All of us here at Dakota have been busy realigning. The energy switch in the ether has been palpable. You know, the switch from thinking about what you want , rather than what you don't want. A most difficult task, but quite rewarding, as evidenced by Obama's victory. Looks like enough of us put our conscious attention (followed by sufficient action) to imagining this change, and it happened.
Sadly, some of us here at Dakota are change aversive, and don't like feeling out of control. As a consequence, we have developed symptoms too numerous to mention -- the usual manifestations of somatized fear and grief, and, you may have noticed that our creative life went out the window too.
In spite of our difficulties, we find Obama is a wonderful model. We often conjure up the image of him holding up his hand to a disapproving crowd saying, "Don't boo, just vote" .
Obama spoke about his spiritual life in a 2004 interview with Cathleen Falsani:
OBAMA: .... I retain from my childhood and my experiences growing up a suspicion of dogma. And I'm not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I've got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others.I'm a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at it's best comes with a big dose of doubt. I'm suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding just because I think people are limited in their understanding.
I think that, particularly as somebody who's now in the public realm and is a student of what brings people together and what drives them apart, there's an enormous amount of damage done around the world in the name of religion and certainty.
FALSANI: Do you pray often?
OBAMA: Uh, yeah, I guess I do.
Its' not formal, me getting on my knees. I think I have an ongoing conversation with God. I think throughout the day, I'm constantly asking myself questions about what I'm doing, why am I doing it.
One of the interesting things about being in public life is there are constantly these pressures being placed on you from different sides. To be effective, you have to be able to listen to a variety of points of view, synthesize viewpoints. You also have to know when to be just a strong advocate, and push back against certain people or views that you think aren't right or don't serve your constituents.
And so, the biggest challenge, I think, is always maintaining your moral compass. Those are the conversations I'm having internally. I'm measuring my actions against that inner voice that for me at least is audible, is active, it tells me where I think I'm on track and where I think I'm off track.
It's interesting particularly now after this election, comes with it a lot of celebrity. And I always think of politics as having two sides. There's a vanity aspect to politics, and then there's a substantive part of politics. Now you need some sizzle with the steak to be effective, but I think it's easy to get swept up in the vanity side of it, the desire to be liked and recognized and important. It's important for me throughout the day to measure and to take stock and to say, now, am I doing this because I think it's advantageous to me politically, or because I think it's the right thing to do? Am I doing this to get my name in the papers or am I doing this because it's necessary to accomplish my motives.
FALSANI: Checking for altruism?
OBAMA: Yeah. I mean, something like it.
Looking for, ... It's interesting, the most powerful political moments for me come when I feel like my actions are aligned with a certain truth. I can feel it. When I'm talking to a group and I'm saying something truthful, I can feel a power that comes out of those statements that is different than when I'm just being glib or clever.
FALSANI: What's that power? Is it the holy spirit? God?
OBAMA: Well, I think it's the power of the recognition of God, or the recognition of a larger truth that is being shared between me and an audience....
Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion. I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure. I mean, I'm a law professor at the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law. I am a great admirer of our founding charter, and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming, and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root ion this country.
As I said before, in my own public policy, I'm very suspicious of religious certainty expressing itself in politics....
A standard line in my stump speech during this campaign is that my politics are informed by a belief that we're all connected.
Now isn't that refreshing? It's worth reading the whole thing if you have the attention span.
We know personally when we're aligning because sometimes a metaphorophoto appears (see above), or a friend emails a prayer of thanks, which we will include for those of you who know a little Hebrew.
Barack atah Illinois, Elohenu melech ha'olam,
hoo-ray p'ri ha-electoral landslide.
Amen
Photo note: Obama standing up for what he believes, in the midst of the corporatocracy, notice the light - a combo metaphorophoto/metamorphophoto
Posted by Dakota at November 13, 2008 07:32 PM