SIXTY-THREE
Kitchen table politics
On p. 63 of GR, Sarah inaugurates a new chapter in her book. In this chapter, she discusses her first ventures into the cauldron and amphitheater of politics.
I would like to make a few brief observations about the title of this new chapter and also about the providential role that one Nick Carney played, willy-nilly, in launching Sarah's career of public service.
Sarah entitles this chapter "Kitchen-Table Politics."
This expression involves a fascinating and revealing juxtaposition of concepts.
It invites and urges us, I believe, to reflect on the close and stringent bond and connection that subsists between matters of private, familial economy and matters of the welfare and good of nations.
The word "Politics" is derived from a Greek word that we may transcribe in English as "polis." A "polis" is a city-state.
Sarah's life history reveals how care for seemingly small, private affairs has prepared her for greater, public tasks.
Let us think about that Kitchen Table (I capitalize on purpose), and how the concerns of that humble Table relate to the greater problems of the state.
Sarah has had to be concerned for years and years with putting food on that Kitchen Table.
Sarah has had to write out and pay bills for years and years on that Kitchen Table (or on a table much like it!)
Sarah has had to ponder and worry over family problems and family decisions for years and years over that Kitchen Table.
Sarah has convened and gathered her family for years and years around that Kitchen Table.
Sarah has conversed, smiled, laughed, wept, and argued with her family for years and years around that Kitchen Table.
Even as I write these words, serious talks with her family about the greatest and weightiest decision of her life, a decision we all eagerly await, are undoubtedly occurring around that fateful Kitchen Table.
Surely all these seemingly insignificant battles and wars that Sarah and her family have fought around that Table have nurtured and prepared her mind and spirit for the successively higher roles that she has played in various "city-states": First, that of the city of Wasilla; next, that of the State of Alaska; finally, and momentously, that of the entire United States of America.
She understands all of us, and the problems we face on a daily basis. She sympathizes with us. She will bring that deep perception and wisdom to the Oval Office, God willing.
I think that we may justly name and dub Sarah and her heroic family America's Valiant Knights of the "Round" Table of Wasilla, their Kitchen Table!!!
Finally, let us briefly consider these following words of Sarah from p. 63 in the context of the mysterious ways and paths of the Lord.
She says, "It was Nick Carney, the self-proclaimed local mover and shaker and president of the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce, who set me on the path of public service."
As you know from reading the book, while Mr. Carney expected Sarah to become his ally in city politics, she, as she always has, followed her own way and her own conscience.
Carney had one set of purposes and motivations in urging Sarah to enter local politics; the LORD had far different Purposes!!!
May we not extend this observation to a host of other incidents and happenings in her wonderful life?
Take, as one example, Senator McCain's selection of Sarah as his VP choice in '08. We will never know fully why McCain made the choice that he did. He probably had multiple layers of purposes and intentions.
Whatever his motivations were, GOD had other ideas and other intentions that were likely far from McCain's mind when he made his fateful choice in the dying days of the summer of 2008.
The acts of Mr. Carney and of Senator McCain are just two examples of the mysterious and infallibly good and merciful dispositions of the Lord.
Let us pray and sacrifice as never before for our dear sister, Sarah, in the coming days and weeks…and let us place complete trust in the All-Highest, Who has guided her so far on a truly miraculous and marvelous and mighty path!!!!
