We pray for our nation regularly. Yesterday, as we discussed the upcoming inauguration of President Obama, we ended up talking about how hard it is to be the president's children. We imagined what it's like for Malia Anne and Sasha to go to a new school, to hear people talk about their parents, to have everyone watch every little thing they do and say. We prayed for the two girls.
It's not often that we think of our President (and other public figures) as a regular human being with needs like our own, and that troubles at home can impact his work performance just as much as they do each of us. I'm glad we got to thinking about Obama's family. In creative writing, one talks about creating characters that are three-dimensional, as opposed to flat, lifeless caricatures. In politics, too, I think we imagine political figures as flat icons that stand for one thing or another. Prayers, I think, open up our compassion and understanding so that we can see things in 3-D. Although a 3-D space is far more complex and more difficult to navigate, it's much, much better than a flat plane.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Thank you for this post. As part of my New Year's resolutions I am praying for a new person each day but continuing to pray for all the people on my list until their prayer is answered or the end of the year. I feel I could easily add Obama to my list of people to pray for. Thank you for that reminder.
ReplyDelete