EIGHTY-THREE
"Let there be a connecting string between You and me, so that I can fly high and safe...I will go where You want me to go. I'll be what You want me to be."
On p. 83 of GR, Sarah is discussing the time, near the end of her tenure as Mayor of Wasilla, when she was considering her political future. She writes, "Still, the lieutenant governor's spot seemed like a good next step for me. It was an administrative position where I could put my executive experience to good use.
"During that time, I was reading Willow a book called "The Flyaway Kite." The metaphor of this book worked its way into my spiritual life and my whole way of thinking. I wrote a contemplative prayer in my journal that summer that I recently came across.
"I had written: 'Let me not become disconnected from You, Lord. Like that red kite, let there be a connecting string between You and me, so that I can fly high and safe as You've created all people to do. With that string, I will go where You want me to go. I'll be what You want me to be. Thank You for Your grace.'
"Somehow I knew that God was working on something significant in our small-town life, and I felt myself seeking something ahead. Still, I prayed to be content with what I had, even if that meant that my political career would end in Wasilla City Hall."
What a powerful and scintillating testimony these words are to a servant's heart and to a beautiful and brave soul!!!
She is ready boldly to venture forth and aloft, like a kite, wherever the Hand and Scepter of Providence may lead her; yet she is also content to accept a decision of Heaven that will end her political career in the mayor's office, and that, like the string on the kite, will hold her back from advancing any further.
She is neither too timid and too afraid to tackle any future charge and task and office that the Lord may lay upon her shoulders, nor is she possessed of the selfish and overweening and destructive ambition that would take her along paths not destined and marked for her by Providence!!
And very importantly, however far and high she may sail, she will never sever herself from the loving and caring "kite string" of the Lord's will for her and for her life!
Behold, here is a heart like the great heart of the Father of Our Country, George Washington.
Behold, here is one who, precisely because she is reluctant to serve unless she is truly called to serve, is verily suitable and apt and fit for the highest office in our land.
Behold, here is one who, IMHO, has been marked out to fulfill, more than two centuries after the passing of the noble gentleman and patriot and warrior and statesman from Virginia, a parallel and complementary role to the one that fell to Washington, the office and glory of being the Mother of Her Country!!!
Let us notice a few other things too about this simple and yet profound passage.
We may perhaps hear a certain echo of St. Paul in Sarah's prayer that she may be content with what she has: "I prayed to be content with what I had." The Great Lion of God admonishes soldiers, for example, to be content with their pay, that is, they are not to augment their money by plundering and robbing from helpless civilians!
I think we see here that Art of the Perfect Balance that only very great spirits can maintain and keep: To be neither too cowardly to reach and grasp for the stars, nor too proud to do so against the dispositions and the will of the Lord!!
Finally, let us observe the wonderful tradition of literature that we witness here being passed down and transmitted in a beautiful family of readers and school teachers!! Sarah's own mom often read aloud to her. We observe Sarah doing the same thing here for her daughter, Willow.
I observed earlier in the course of these reflections how reading aloud animates and vivifies literature:
The First Dimension of the Word is books sitting silently and coldly on their shelves, unread and unheeded.
The Second Dimension of the Word is when someone reads a book silently and alone to himself or herself.
The Third Dimension of the Word is when someone reads aloud to someone else, and communicates, with all the puissance and power of the VOX VIVA, the living voice, the heart and essence of a beautiful piece of literature. Reading of this kind creates a bond of mind and heart and spirit and soul between the reader and the "readee"!!!
Along with the words read, the lector communicates and shares a part of him or herself with the auditor. Reading of this kind gives life, verdant and green life, to the words read, to the reader, and to the listener!!
We may observe yet again how foul and mendacious have been the slanders of the Left against Sarah, that she is unread and stupid!!! The horrible chris matthews was only one example of this vicious lying: On the occasion of the publication in '09 of Going Rogue, he asked how she could write a book, when it was doubtful she could even read one!!! What a terrible thing to say about a member of a family that loves literature.
Well, the lies will pass away, like chaff before the winds of the Spirit…
MAGNA EST VERITAS, ET PRAEVALEBIT--Great is Truth, and She will prevail!!!
