sarahcentric

Do not tweek. This ain’t a political blog. Trust me, I would suck at it. In fact, this entry is about just how hard I would suck at it.

A window into a life filled with agro political blogs recently blew open rather violently. I checked my emotional weather and realized it was a storm front of my enthusiasm and passion for Barack Obama, crashing into my complete disappointment and utter despair with the Republican National Convention. My emotional hurricane picked up velocity and speed as it traveled over the fiery hot waters of the popular liberal blogs, wreaking havoc and devastation on anyone in its path. I stirred up the New York City liberal pot with late-night texts and emails to friends about some new “fact” from the blogs that would surely be the undoing of the McCain/Palin candidacy. Family relationships were tested with heated, not so polite conversations as to why my candidate was the ONLY candidate. Support and enthusiasm for Barack Obama morphed into obsession and over-consumption. I literally could not sleep one night. We’re talking Snobberific, New York City, Hurricane Sarah…and I mean, Sarah JACKSON.

It was the total free reign I gave to this hate storm that was its eventual undoing. I was in full-on, Category 5 mode when I Tweeted the following; “OMG, CNN’s Campbell Scott just destroyed McCain spokesperson!” I was all kinds of proud and snotty, big and blustery with my first political blog …or micro-blog, as it were. But when I received the following response, my storm came to an embarrassing halt, “Ummm, isn’t it Campbell BROWN??” Oh yes, that’s right. The CNN anchor’s last name is Brown, not Scott. Campbell Scott would be the actor I had a huge crush on in 8th grade when he co-starred with Julia Roberts in the tearjerker “Dying Young”. Don’t worry, I definitely had the Kenny G soundtrack..

See? I suck at it. Quick, stormy responses to serious world problems do not put me at the top of my Sarahcentric game. Or maybe those reactions are so off the mark they are totally me; revealing that while my infatuation with Campbell Brown’s hard-hitting interview was powerful, it’s my true love for Campbell Scott that’s unwavering. Either way, I’ve come to realize this is very good news.

In a meditation course I took with the very cool Sharon Salzberg she said the point of meditation was to stop looking to outside forces to solve your problems and heartaches. Meditation is the exact opposite. Sit quite still, look inside and work from there. “You’ll find there’s no small amount of energy there.” So in that spirit, my vote still goes to Barack Obama.

Ironically, it was the Republican convention and its confusion in regards to the list of a Community Organizer’s responsibilities that directed me back to why I was truly supporting Barack Obama. I have had some great personal success with three of these guys in particular, and I found that type of vision and experience lacking on the Republican ticket this year. Here’s a quick one-sheet for anyone who may still be confused.

This is Mahatma Gandhi. Very smart guy, very cool, kinda quiet. Actually he was an attorney, before he lost the suit and started making his own clothes. So, ya’ know, impressive resume. Gandhi’s complete commitment to non-violent protest and civil disobedience inspired his people and led to reclaiming their country from the British. Like I said, impressive resume.

Ohhh, I liked this guy very much. Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled all the way to India to meet with some of Gandhi’s followers in 1959. Dr. King brought these ideas home to churches in the Deep South. His version of non-violence was filled with crazy-beautiful sermons, speeches and marches demanding that America live up to its promise and potential of equal rights for everyone.

So I guess if you’re not familiar with the other two guys’ work, you may not know who Thich Nhat Hanh is…but he’s kind of a big deal. Back when he was a young Buddhist monk in Vietnam, he realized much earlier than than the rest of the world that the Vietnam war was pretty much a disaster for everyone. Thich Nhat Hanh’s Engaged Buddhism movement is probably best summed up with his mantra “Peace in oneself, Peace in the world.” When he was exiled from Vietnam for refusing to take sides in the conflict, he continued to spread his message of peace and urged others to speak out publicly against the war. In fact, he had a pretty successful meeting with Dr. King. Not only did he agree with this monk, but he went so far as to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize in a letter dated January 25, 1967…nine years to the day that I was born.

That chain all leads all the way up to me here on New Year’s Day 2008; the last day of my first meditation retreat at one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s monasteries in upstate NY. Amazing, intense, but the 5 am call for a 45 minute meditation was a disaster for the circles under my eyes.

My trust and endorsement of these three Community Organizers does not come from the amazing achievements we all memorized and took tests on in school. It comes from my first-hand experience. If Gandhi hadn’t marched to make salt and Dr. King hadn’t boycotted buses, there is no way in hell my white Irish mom from upstate NY could have ever married my African-American father from D.C. If King had not helped promote Thich Nhat Hanh’s simple agenda for peace, I would never have found the ability to ask myself who I really was and what in the hell I was doing here anyway.

Based on my experience, I really don’t have a choice. My vote for Obama and this entry is not political, it’s personal. When I ask myself on that deepest level who should get my vote, there’s no way a candidate who calls upon the experience and memory of great men and women like this is NOT getting my vote. If it wasn’t for Community Organizers, I simply wouldn’t exist.

But what I do have a choice in is how I conduct myself in these last days of the campaign. I owe it to myself and these three guys to treat everyone who is looking hard at their choice this November with respect. Dr. King once said that “our destinies are intertwined”. Word. I don’t care how different someone at the RNC appeared to me, in my heart I know that we all want the same things for our families and loved ones. We are all equal. It is my responsibility to make sure my vote doesn’t come from a self-righteous Left or a vicious response to the Right. I’ll be Barack-ing the vote from my very center.

That is the only way I can take the pressure off the results of this election and remind myself that I am a part of something much larger. I can act with a little class knowing that no matter what happens, the true spirit of Community which is required to solve any major world crises, always wins out in the end. Always.