PAGE 102

''Run, Mom! I love you! Don't give up!''

On p.102 of GR, Sarah pens, IMHO, some of the most wonderful lines in her entire volume. She writes:

"Winter 2004 came and with it the unique blanket of darkness that covers our coldest months. For me it was a time of restlessness, the kind when you know in your soul you're supposed to be preparing for something, that there's something else out there, but the next open door is not yet revealed. I remember waking up in the middle of the night knowing there was something else, knowing there was room for more.

"The kids were growing up quickly and we moved through fun holiday seasons into the rebirth of spring. Track got his driver's license, and I trained for a marathon. It was a very contemplative time, and I focused on my family while considering what I might do next. The long runs provided me with the clarity needed to weigh my options.

"As the soles of my shoes hit the soft ground, I pushed past the tall cottonwood trees in a euphoric cadence, and meandered through willow branches that the moose munched on. A grassy culvert ran parallel to the road where I logged my long miles.

"On lucky days, my newly licensed sixteen-year-old drove the route ahead of me, placing water bottles at intervals inside the culverts, along with notes of encouragement. 'Run, Mom! I love you!' and 'Don't give up!' For any mom, it just meant so much that somebody would do that, especially a busy teenager. It was a great season."

BEAUTIFUL WORDS FROM A BEAUTIFUL SOUL!!!

And this is the lady that the pathetic chris matthews practically called illiterate!!

I think that pages could be written about the Governor's wonderful, poetry-gilded prose here.

I shall confine myself to just a few remarks that, I think, are particularly relevant to this moment, as the nation looks to the fall election and beyond.

I believe that the Governor is now poised at a kind of crossroads similar to the one that confronted her in 2004. I suspect that today too, just as she did eight years ago, she would say that she knows that she should be preparing for something; that there is something else out there; that the next open door is not yet revealed; that there is room for more!!

What did she do during this season and time of uncertainty, of reflection, of meditation, of doubt?

She ran marathons, and rejoiced in the Lord's blessings on her and on her family!!

I believe that, besides physical marathons and other exercises of the body, she is running spiritual marathons too in these days, as she seeks the light of Heaven as to where her next road leads.

However, I would like to focus my attention on what WE can do in these times for a great-hearted, great-souled lady who has already done so much for us.

This is where the marvelous example of her first-born, Track, stands as a luminous and inspiring example for us.

The Governor recounts how he would leave water bottles and encouraging notes along her dusty, weary paths of labor!

WE CAN DO THE SAME THING--and, indeed, piety and gratitude, I believe, demand that we do so.

Let us encourage her; let us lift her up; let us support her; let us love her, as she continues to pursue, with every drop of her noble Alaskan and American soul's blood, her lonely and lofty mission to save the country she loves!!

It is not our part and duty to place physical bottles of water and notes along a tangible trail and path for her.

However, there are so very many ways in which we can help her and sustain her!!

We can pray for her.

We can make sacrifices for her.

We can defend her with our "pens."

We can give generously to SarahPAC.

We can vindicate her brave life and wonderful accomplishments in conversation with others.

We can even write to her, to tell her how much she means to us, and to tens of millions of patriot hearts throughout this land of ours!!

Let us then follow Track Palin's stellar and scintillating and outstanding example!!

Let us leave "water bottles" and "notes of encouragement" along her lonely path.

Let us tell her, in a thousand ways, that she is not alone.

Let us tell her that, when the Lord reveals the next step to her, we stand ready to follow her into battle anywhere and everywhere, in order to save and exalt the land that we love!!!

If we act with fidelity and boldness and devotion and courage in this time of testing, we shall look back someday, with the eagle eye of retrospect, and say, as Sarah did about that time and tide of joy and doubt and labor and love in 2004:

"IT WAS A GREAT SEASON"!!!


Read It For Yourself:

Read It For Yourself:

Other Great Sarah Books:

Other Great Sarah Books:

Palin Essentials:

Palin Essentials:

Credits:

All sidebar photos are from Wikimedia. I have tried to post all royalty-free images or to get permission, but in a few cases I could not locate the original source of a photograph or find a way to ask permission.


Contact info: bbrianus@gmail.com.

Other Great Going Rogue Reviews:

Jedediah Bila:

"Palin’s inviting first-person narration that is sometimes whimsical, often confident, and always patriotic...Going Rogue is truly one of those reads in which you put the book down after your eyes graze the final lines and you somehow feel like the writer is someone you’ve known all your life."
John Ziegler:

"I was simply blown away by Going Rogue on almost every level. For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime..."
Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata:
"Her book washes away all doubts that any reader might have had about her readiness to be president. She comes across as exceptionally bright, dedicated, and passionate about public service. Her moral compass is strong, pointing true North in this case. And she has a wicked sense of humor."
Don Surber:
"Conservatives know why Palin is still standing — and standing taller today than those who tried to bring her down. What does not kill you makes you stronger. Thank you, Tina Fey."

Sarah Palin is Coming to Town

Review by Stanley Fish:

When I walked into the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan last week, I headed straight for the bright young thing who wore an “Ask Me” button, and asked her to point me to the section of the store where I might find Sarah Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.” She looked at me as if I had requested a copy of “Mein Kampf” signed in blood by the author....

A few days later...I had begun reading Palin’s book, and while I wouldn’t count myself a fan in the sense of being a supporter, I found it compelling and very well done....

First, the art. The book has an architectonic structure that is built around a single moment, the moment when Palin receives a call from John McCain inviting her to be the vice-presidential candidate of the Republican party. When we first hear about the call it is as much a surprise to us as it was (at least as reported) to her, because for six pages she has been recounting a wonderful family outing at the Alaska State Fair. When her phone rings, she hopes it might be a call from her son Track, a soldier soon to deploy to Iraq, but “it was Senator John McCain asking if I wanted to help him change history.”

And that’s the last we hear of it for 200 pages. In between we hear a lot about Wasilla, high school, basketball, college, marriage, children, Down syndrome, Alaska politics, the environment, a daughter’s pregnancy. The re-entry of John McCain into the narrative on page 208 introduces Palin’s account of the presidential campaign and its aftermath, especially her decision to resign the governorship before the end of her term....

Paradoxically, the effect of the neatly spaced references to the call is to de-emphasize it as a dramatic moment. It is presented not as a climax, but as an interruption of matters more central to Palin’s abiding concerns — her family, Alaska’s prosperity, energy policy. (She loves to rehearse the kind of wonkish details we associate with Hillary Clinton, whom she admires.)

Indeed, it is a feature of this narrative that events we might have expected to be foregrounded are elided or passed over. Palin introduced herself to the nation with a powerful, electrifying speech accepting McCain’s invitation to join the ticket. It gets half a sentence (“I gave my speech”)....

The only event that receives an extended discussion is her resignation. It is important to her because as an act it reflects on her integrity, and she has to be sure (as she eventually was) that she was doing it for the right reasons.

Resigning was a moral act for which she was responsible. The vice-presidential candidacy just happened to her; her account of it reads like an extended “what-I-did-on-my summer-and fall-vacation” essay.

For many politicians, family life is sandwiched in between long hours in public service. Palin wants us to know that for her it is the reverse. Political success is an accident that says nothing about you. Success as a wife, mother and citizen says everything...

I find the voice undeniably authentic...It is the voice of small-town America, with its folk wisdom, regional pride, common sense, distrust of rhetoric (itself a rhetorical trope), love of country and instinctive (not doctrinal) piety.

It says, here are some of the great things that have happened to me, but they are not what makes my life great and American. (“An American life is an extraordinary life.”) It says, don’t you agree with me that family, freedom and the beauties of nature are what sustain us?

And it also says, vote for me next time. For it is the voice of a politician, of the little girl who thought she could fly, tried it, scraped her knees, dusted herself off and “kept walking.”

In the end, perseverance, the ability to absorb defeat without falling into defeatism, is the key to Palin’s character. It’s what makes her run in both senses of the word and it is no accident that the physical act of running is throughout the book the metaphor for joy and real life. Her handlers in the McCain campaign wouldn’t let her run (a mistake, I think, even at the level of photo-op), no doubt because they feared another opportunity to go “off script,” to “go rogue.”

But run she does (and falls, but so what?), and when it is all over and she has lost the vice presidency and resigned the governorship, she goes on a long run and rehearses in her mind the eventful year she has chronicled. And as she runs, she achieves equilibrium and hope: “We’ve been through amazing days, and really, there wasn’t one thing to complain about. I feel such freedom, such hope, such thankfulness for our country, a place where nothing is hopeless.”

The message is clear. America can’t be stopped. I can’t be stopped. I’ve stumbled and fallen, but I always get up and run again. Her political opponents, especially those who dismissed Ronald Reagan before he was elected, should take note. Wherever you are, you better watch out. Sarah Palin is coming to town.

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