LIVING IN THE QUESTION with Maureen Waddell
And Just Who Will We 'Be' Inauguration Day as We Listen to 'the Speech?'
And why is that important? Only because the answer to that question might help us to fulfill our part of the bargain between the governed and the government of the United States embodied in our new President, Barack H. Obama as he attempts once more to tell us who he is and what he values. Not just for himself, no, for you also, as partners with him in our common pact, this nation, and what it embodies. What will we hear, see, observe, think, and comment upon to friends and neighbors either then or later? Will we be attempting to apprehend who Obama is, just what he is conveying to us, individually and collectively or listening and seeing through an ideological perspective, a lens, if you will, a prism which colors all of our perceptions so that we end up comforted by our own preconceived ideas and subverting the change he calls for and represents in the process? Or will we be resonating to the true communication he also embodies?
That true communication involves some things more than others, of course. It involves assessing the authentic being of the man speaking to us. In this case it should be fairly easy to determine the truth of this process as he speaks. He will be speaking from a ground of values which he has represented throughout his life. Among them are the truths which he has grown into as he has grown in years and wisdom: awareness, integrity, intelligence, responsibility, inclusiveness and an integration of those values within his personality. From this perspective he looks outward upon our divided and divisive natures - and nation - and sees the possibility of unity once more. As he once said, and has repeated countless times, and as I paraphrase here: There are no white-Americans, no black-Americans; there are no Asian-Americans no Muslim-Americans, Latino- or Indian Americans. There are simply Americans. There are no red states and no blue states, simply the United States of America. And those values for which it stands was implicit in the forgoing. I suspect they were in his mind as he spoke. I know they were in his heart. As they are in mine and have been since my childhood. Although I, too, had to grow to meet them and him halfway. Thus the purpose of my life as I approach my own 'final chapter.'
As an older white female, born during WWII, I have lived through an era in which men of mixed race, as Obama is, were discounted and worse. He is half African-American; I lived though the days when that fact alone was a form of condemnation, when even the laws of the land did not fully extend to such a large part of our population. That we are only now inaugurating a president who carries within him the white AND the black should be reason enough to accept what I am reporting. The pain of that condemnation was intense to me as a sensitive child who knew and loved others of his lineage as friends and neighbors. I could not understand; I refused to accept the results, nay, the consequences, I perceived. That this day has finally arrived thrills me beyond what my words alone could ever convey.
So everyone seems to be talking and writing about what Obama's speech on Inauguration Day(!) is to contain figuring that they, thus, can take the 'measure of the man' in that way. This appears, from all I have heard and read, to be especially important for those who did not vote for him, for the Independents and/or Republicans, many of whom never bothered to determine who Obama was and what he had to offer when they had the responsibility to do so, that is before voting in November! Don't forget the renegade Democrats either or those who found it convenient to stay at home that day and not vote at all.
My intention is to have you approach this issue from the opposite perspective or both. Who are you? And, then, who is Obama? That task requires an awareness of your own perspective, your own process in assessing him; in short it requires a knowledge of the components of your perception as well as his.
Yes, words matter. But not only his.
Yours too. The words you will use in thinking of this day, this speech, the words you will use in talking with others about your experience, again in short, what you perceive in determining who Obama is and what he intends for all of us collectively, how these intentions will translate into policy, affect you and your family, your work, your life lived as an American citizen - all are important. You might then ask yourself:
What is my ideology?
What are my assumptions therefore?
How aware am I of the subtext (things seen, heard, assessed and filed often without full awareness?); once aware of the things expressed and not expressed, how aware am I of the context, the body language noted, both his and mine?
Am I sensitive to others? And, if so, on what basis?
Am I aware of self, of others, of community, of cultures and subcultures within our country, not simply my own? To which do I belong? To which do I long to be a member?
Are my relationships transactional or intrinsic?
Am I being completely honest with myself and others as I look at these issues?
What then might be my expectations of this man, this new president?
To what end? What do I really value, indeed?
Am I inspired? That is, am I 'in spirit?' (This last need not pertain to any religious affiliation whatsoever, but simply be spiritual and thus not man-made or derived from anything other than being created thoughtfully human)
For today, especially, the title of this column is perfect. At the outset of any new administration that is the position all of us are in, acknowledged or not, politically and ideologically supportive or not. We each, individually, bear the ultimate responsibility for the choice we have made collectively. So we must all henceforth be "living in the question." Of what his intentions and ultimately our own might be. Just keep questioning, especially ourselves.
In this instance, I actually supported our soon-to-be-President Obama and have high hopes on this day that he will achieve his primary objective: unity within our own country. And this, while Obama is fully aware that the primary threat to this country comes not from without, as has been commonly believed, but from within. Suicide is as much a tragedy when it is a country and its people as victims as when it is any individual. More so, in reality, as individual lives take place within the context of the whole. Obama, as a mature thinker, is aware of this wisdom. And awareness is all inclusive of the other, again commonly assumed, virtues.
It must be that I, too, value unity as this was literally the first thing which struck me about Obama back 14 years ago when I thought (prematurely) that he was going to be a writer, another value I hold as a reader and a rare book lover. In that respect I have always loved 'discovering' new first-time authors; thus my introduction to Obama through his wonderfully-written book, Dreams From My Father, which I still, and maybe now, pointedly, recommend to the other readers I know and love. That he became a politician as well, and therefore became available to our country as a whole, also thrills me as I do understand the struggles he has endured and the consistency of values which he has to offer to the rest of the American public - and, if I may still be so bold, to the world at large. And to acquit myself in these terms I shall be forced to quote myself from a column I wrote just about a year ago only days after the Iowa caucuses and then published in this space:
Many have spoken of his preternatural calm. Some have misinterpreted it, through their own distorted lens, as coldness. It is not. It is simply a reflection of that wisdom which he possesses within himself. At some level he already knows his purpose here is to bring us this gift of wisdom, to teach all of us of the truth of unity, both political and personal. He is running for President in order to to teach us, this fractured country of individuals, and other nations as well, of this unity. As I view it, he is God's wisdom made manifest within our world.
This wisdom is his to give only because he was willing to listen, to reflect, to learn and then to incorporate this wisdom into a higher level of responsibility and action. If we are able to heed this, the red state/blue state dichotomy, so cruelly present in our country, will cease to exist at a practical, political level. We will again be one people, united in our founding principles, and thus will be once more a "shining city on a hill" for the world to see, to emulate. For this possibility, this gift alone, I am profoundly grateful. And I am humbled even further by the depth of that gratitude.
Whatever controversy I engender, whatever rebuke my words evoke in others, pale into insignificance when confronted with truth. This, too, is a gift to share. I thank God for Barack Obama, for the signpost he is, and the truth he represents toward wisdom for us all. It is that wisdom, without which, at this level or of this quality, love itself cannot exist except as an unattainable ideal or an absolute. (Barack Obama: Again and Still, January 2008)
Now how many columnists get to quote themselves after all? Now that all of the above has come to pass, so to say, and thanks to our dear soon-to-be-President Obama, I just did. And for that, too, I am profoundly grateful.
It is a marvel to me that Barack Obama's Inauguration Day places him directly following Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and just before Abraham Lincoln's! But to quote just MLK on this day I offer this thought of his:
All this is simply to say that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in this world, no man can be totally rich even if he has a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people cannot expect to live more than twenty or thirty years, no man can be totally healthy, even if he just got a clean bill of health from the finest clinic in America. Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way the world is made." (Martin Luther King, Jr. 6-6-6/Lincoln University in his commencement speech entitled 'The American Dream')
From 'I have a dream' to 'yes, we can!' What a country! And perhaps not so surprising after all that today we are ALL Americans. For this latter, I am, perhaps, most grateful of all.
Maureen F. Waddell
January 20, 2009
Marueen may be reached at freelancenewsreport@juno.com
