Mr. Brooks Gets A Clue

Pretty Lady occasionally hesitates to disclose her real opinion, on the subject that is uppermost in so many of our minds. She has already experienced the dangers of Getting Political, much less the minefield that is Mixing Spirituality and Politics. But her inner impressions are so strong now as to be unavoidable; moreover, even a prominent conservative seems to agree with her.

Obama...grew up with an absent father and a peripatetic mother. “I learned long ago to distrust my childhood,” he wrote in “Dreams From My Father.” This is supposed to produce a politician with gaping personal needs and hidden wounds.

But over the past two years, Obama has never shown evidence of that. Instead, he has shown the same untroubled self-confidence day after day.

There has never been a moment when, at least in public, he seems gripped by inner turmoil. It’s not willpower or self-discipline he shows as much as an organized unconscious. Through some deep, bottom-up process, he has developed strategies for equanimity, and now he’s become a homeostasis machine.

Pretty Lady, in great trepidation, and with the full understanding that she might be wrong, dares to give a name to this 'deep-bottom-up process': transcending the ego. In other words, she believes that Mr. Obama demonstrates a greater level of spiritual maturity than the vast majority of human beings.

She is fully aware that you are all sick of hearing about this from her.

She suspects, however, that few of you have yet grasped what she is saying, so doggedly she repeats herself. Transcending the ego is not the same as denying the ego; it is not about self-effacement, self-abnegation, or climbing a mountain and meditating alone for the rest of one's life. It is perfectly possible, though not at all common, for a person to transcend his or her ego, enter politics, and become one of the most powerful people in the world. It is possible because this 'transcending' process, this seemingly ethereal, esoteric, annoyingly New-Agey sounding thing is, in reality, a process for facilitating the flow of energy.

In other words, it creates astonishing power. Power greater by far than simple brutal self-aggrandizement. The key thing about this sort of power, moreover, is that its very essence is disarming and harmonizing, not destructive, because it derives from a source much greater than any individual perspective can contain.

Look, darlings, at the salient characteristics of Mr. Obama's temperament, as elucidated by Mr. Brooks. Equanimity: check. Ability to see the Big Picture: check. Detachment from personal attacks: check. Non-neediness: check.

These are all signs of a mind that has ceased to wholly identify with its small-s self, and become aware of the tranquil, timeless, indestructible, universal Self. It is impervious to personal attacks because it is not That Person. It is capable of listening deeply and sincerely to others, because it acknowledges those others as an integral part of itself, not as a threat. It can grasp the Big Picture, because it IS the Big Picture.

Pretty Lady is certain that there are many of you who will claim that she is going Too Far; there are more of you who will claim that a liberal socialist cannot possibly have transcended anything, because liberal socialism is the philosophy of the Devil. She would endeavor to pre-address these arguments, but she is looking forward to a fun discussion, so instead she invites you to have at it.