TWENTY-FOUR
Mat-Su Borough Mayor Dr. Menard and Governor Palin sign
contracts for the Goose Creek Correctional Center
contracts for the Goose Creek Correctional Center
On p. 24 of Going Rogue Sarah has been describing the tragic, cruel accident suffered by her dad's best friend, Dr. Curt Menard, a dentist. He lost his right arm, and had to retrain himself to become a left-handed, one-armed DDS.
This happened when Sarah was in elementary school. Sarah's mom warned the kids that, although their own family had not yet really been through trials of this kind, every family goes through times of testing. She writes:
"'We haven't really been through that yet,' Mom said in a gentle warning.
"That scared me at first. But then she comforted me, saying, 'Maybe our challenge will be to care for other families who do.'
Curt Menard shows old yearbook photos of Sarah
"For me, that conversation laid the foundation that you help other people. That everyone has a struggle and that when you don't, you comfort and support those who do. Plato said it well: 'Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.' The conversation also warned me to not take our comfort for granted."
Ah, my friends, here we behold the seeds of courage, of courtesy, of unflagging, unfailing, unstinted charity that were sown in the bosom of this very special family from the North Country, from the Great Land!!! Today we witness the triumph of the beautiful truth of these principles, as Sarah opens up her brave, intrepid heart, and stretches forth her strong, capable Alaskan hands to help...to help whom?... you and me, my family and your families, thousands and millions of families up and down and across all this land of ours.
And yet, is there not a mystery here? I think there is: The mystery of suffering.
How many thoughtful men and women have asked, over the years and centuries, "How can a good God permit so much suffering, especially the suffering of innocents?"
It is a great mystery. I think that our very humanity, our liability to suffering, the inevitability of death, all these create potential bonds between us all. These potential bonds are made actual ones when we reach outside of ourselves to others in times of trouble.
Maybe the Lord permits my neighbor to suffer from a sorrow of the heart, so that I, in comforting him/her, may bring grace to my own soul and consolation to my neighbor, and, above all, create a bond of unity between us.
Maybe the Lord permits my neighbor to stand in need of a few dollars, so that I, in giving a bit of money, may bring interior wealth to my own soul and a little financial help to my neighbor, and, above all, create a bond of unity between us.
Maybe the Lord permits my neighbor to suffer a physical wound of some kind, so that I, in binding up that wound, may heal the wounds of my own soul and help my neighbor back to health, and, above all, create a bond of unity between us.
Menard, right, watches Sarah's RNC speech with other friends
Menard, lower left, watches the VP debate
Remember Clarence the Angel (Angel Second-Class!) in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life," who jumps into the water so that George Bailey will save him from sinking...and in so doing will save his own soul, which is sinking from discouragement and despair.
So let us return to our lovely Sarah.
Who can doubt that she, through countless acts of selfless kindness on the dusty paths of these last several decades of her life in Alaska, brightened her own sweet soul, brought succor and solace to thousands of others, and forged eternal bonds of charity with them?
All these, all these free, gracious, chivalrous acts of kindness by our Sarah, all of them, every last one, added a little more to the adornment and luster and radiance and splendor of her soul's depths of beauty and strength and power!!
The came the Year of Fate, 2008.
So many good Americans have asked the Lord, "Why, oh God, how, oh Lord, could You permit someone like barack obama, as unworthy a charlatan and fraud and knave and thug as has ever occupied the White House, how could You allow someone like this to usurp the Presidency of the United States of America?"
Behold Sarah!!
Think of the fate-filled days that have elapsed and slipped away since the bleak, grim day, 4 November, 2008, of obama's apparent triumph.
Think of the thousands, the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and little children that she has met personally--greeting all her people, with all of their various and variegated trials, woes, and sufferings, greeting and embracing them all with veritable kindness, true sympathy, and genuine affection!
And with every last one of these citizens she has forged and formed unbreakable, lifelong bonds of loyalty and charity.
And further, think of the suffering millions, suffering from miseries of all kinds and sorts, who, although they have not met her personally, have been encouraged, uplifted, enlightened, inspired, fired with patriotic fervor and passion and zeal by her powerful and pithy Facebook posts, by her ardent and eloquent speeches, by her lovely and moving book!!
With these too she has welded and joined bands and bonds of beauty, catenae caritatis libertatis veritatisque, chains of charity and of liberty and of truth, chains not of servitude but of freedom and happiness and joy...bonds that are of iron in the depths of their strength and staying power, and are of gold in the bright sheen of the love and charity reflected between mind and mind, soul and soul!
So here are great mysteries:
No death of the seed, then no fruit and flower;
No autumn and winter, then no spring and summer;
No Good Friday, then no Easter Sunday;
No labor and suffering of the sowing, then no joy and exultation in the reaping;
No "blood, sweat, and tears" of the foundation, then no lofty triumph of the cathedral;
No jimmy carter, then no Ronald Reagan;
...and finally:
No "president" barack obama, then no PRESIDENT SARAH PALIN!!!!!!
