Multiple Personality

The best line in Mary Poppins is when she says, “Enough is as good as a feast.” These are not words that I’ve necessarily lived by — particularly when there’s a full bad of cheezy poofs in front of me — but they do make a good case for sensibility. And tonight has been a good opportunity to ponder the various meanings of “enough.”

Barack Obama gave an incredible speech tonight, a sublime speech. He used the word “enough” to describe America’s feelings about eight years of Bush: Eight is enough. And how four more with McCain would be more than enough of that.

There was a lot of anticipation about Obama’s convention speech, about whether he would deliver enough. He did.

In addition to being enough of an attack dog to let us know he will stand up to the hypocrisy and low-minded thinking and behavior of his opponents, he was also human enough. And statesmanlike enough. And specific enough (I am so tired of hearing certain trepidatious types claim that Obama has no substance behind his promises). And then he did the one thing that transcended enoughness, the thing I have never known any candidate to do before him.

I first decided that Barack Obama deserved the Presidency of this country when he gave a speech that transcended partisan politics and defused game-playing and rhetoric. It was something that seemed to come out of an Aaron Sorkin character on the West Wing, not a Washington wonk. And beyond its poetry, it promised a thoughtful man willing to move past sound bytes and choose people over platitudes.

A lot has been made of Barack Obama’s faith. Even though we still lip-service that we are a country with a separation of church and state, the focus on our candidates’ religion continues to be thrown into the mix of the discussion. On the one hand, I find it annoying and ridiculous — if it’s not being used as a tool of the religious right, what other purpose does it have . . . to vet our candidates to make sure they’re not Satan? — but it’s no secret that I am committed to a spiritual perspective on life, and I am deeply interested in the spiritual foundation of the people I want to entrust power to (which is different than wanting to hear if they can whack somebody with a bible).

When Barack Obama has a “cut the crap” moment, as Keith Olbermann puts it, I feel the man’s spirituality. Obama did not close his speech tonight after he had said enough. Once he had accomplished that, he went the extra yard into the reason I was sold on him in the first place. He transcended the paradigm, cut the crap, called us all on the gamesmanship, and went spiritual. He took the conversation to the resonant place, the human place we all share, the place that isn’t about politics but is about truth. And he reminded us all of what change can really be about. Of why it’s worth the struggle and anxiety of relinquishing a status quo.

A cut-the-crap moment begins at 4:40

There is more going on here than a game of which party can manipulate the media better. There is a real opportunity to choose differently. To awaken a hope that has been dormant for quite some time. To place faith where it might flourish instead of affirm fear where it has always festered.

I’ll tell you what I’ve had enough of: manufactured drama. I’ve had to TiVo the DNC coverage on MSNBC to make sure I could hear the key speeches these past evenings. I can’t believe how much mire I had to fast-forward to get to the actual messages. Seven hours of coverage, six hours of pundits and spin. I’ve also had to tolerate the excited fear of friends and acquaintances who follow every poll and rail against the way McCain is “catching” Obama. Can we all please have a “cut the crap” moment? Instead of getting all freaked out about what seems to threaten, why don’t we try grounding ourselves in what inspires? You might find that your calm inspiration is contagious.

Want more inspiration? How ’bout some National Anthem?

There is enough to go around. That applies to either fear or faith. If you would like to see this country turn around, and see more and more people support the transcended message of Barack Obama, then help fit your friends for some new glasses. Most of us have been wearing a fear prescription, and it’s hard to focus on anything else with that over your eyes. It seems that the country has lost one lens; the clarity of the current fear-vision is blurry. I can’t help but believe that if the other fear-lens is removed, the new message will have a chance to be seen — and become crystal clear. But remember what you learned as a kid: you shouldn’t hit somebody with glasses on. Much better to gently remove the glasses and give them a kiss. How you proceed after that is not really my business.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 12:53 am and is filed under Politics and Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.