PAGE 103


On p. 103 of GR, Sarah continues her discussion of the soul-searching time that followed her resignation as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She writes:

"I would pick Piper up from her bed, snuggle her in a worn flannel quilt, and rock with her in the stillness of the night. The gas fireplace would kick on when the temperature dropped to just the right degree, and I could feel the flickers of light and heat near my feet. There was a longing inside me that winter, a sense of purpose hovering just beyond my vision. Was it ambition? I didn't think so. Ambition drives; purpose beckons. Purpose calls (italics in the original).

"I definitely wasn't driven (italics in the original) toward any particular goal, like power or fame or wealth. So what was it? I wondered, as Piper's sweet breath against my neck matched the rocker's rhythmic glide. I prayed again that if I was to resign myself to what felt like a public service career cut short, that I'd embrace being home full-time. I asked that the fire in my belly, and whatever was feeding it, would simmer down.

"I thought of a passage from the book of Jeremiah 29:11-13: ' "For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. When you call upon Me I will hear you, when you search for Me you will find Me; if you seek Me with all your heart." '

"It irked me that too often women are made to feel guilty for seeking the next open door, no matter what career choices we make. That seems universal. But one doesn't just create (italics in original) passion, nor consciously generate the feeling that there's a door standing open somewhere, even if you can't see it yet. And it wasn't anyone who pressured me: 'Sarah, you've got to get out there and fly! Go do more!' But I knew there was something more."

Just like the passage that was cited from page 102, this page too is clothed with lyric, poetical power, especially the words about Piper!!

I think, however, that what stands out and shines forth even more radiantly than the beauty of the Governor's words is the evidence for the true SERVANT'S HEART that she possesses!

The center and soul of this passage, IMV, is the conjunction and juxtaposition of Sarah's serving as a mom to little Piper while she awaits the Lord's counsel and dispositions, as this is expressed in the citation from the Prophet Jeremiah. Sarah was then, and is today, humbly praying to the Lord for light, and is attentively awaiting His answer, while she goes about her ordinary duties, and fulfills her responsibilities.

Are there any other such figures in the public life of the nation today?

Few if any others, IMHO.

Let us reflect for a few moments on how lofty and mighty and rare and precious is the heart that seeks, not its own vainglorious exaltation, but rather the good of others; the good of one's people; the will and dispositions of the All-Highest!!

The sword and steel of great power can only be wielded by those valiant hands and hearts that have passed through the fiery test of the willingness to decline and refuse power!!

For those of you who love J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," think upon one of the many tests that Aragorn had to pass before he was finally made worthy to hold the mighty power and sit on the ancient throne of the Kings of Gondor!!

He had to overcome, among many other trials, the temptation of seizing the Ring of Power when he might have done so.

He also had to WAIT, in PATIENCE and in HOPE, through long and lonely years for his appointed time.

If a vessel is not formed and shaped and wrought and strengthened by long years of watching and vigilance and suffering and sacrifice, it will not be a vessel fit and capable of holding the heady "wine" of supreme power.

Great power tends to corrupt all but the greatest of souls and spirits.

To move from the mighty realm of Tolkien's fantasy, a fantasy that contains so much of ETERNAL TRUTH AND BEAUTY AND REALITY, to our own nation's history, behold our George Washington, the RELUCTANT PRESIDENT!!

And now let us return to our Sarah.

I was ardently hoping and praying for SARAH 2012. I am still not giving up on the possibility of a miraculous intervention at the Tampa convention!!!

However, it is just possible that the Lord, who knows all the deepest places of our minds and souls and spirits, has said "NOT YET" to Sarah's Presidency.

I believe that RIGHT NOW the Governor would be one of the greatest Chief Executives that the country has ever seen.

However, perhaps Eternal Wisdom has decreed that Sarah must undergo further fires and trials, further waiting, so that she may become, not one of the greatest, but THE GREATEST President in our history!

And it is not the Governor's own soul alone that is in question here.

Maybe America herself will be more ready a few years down the road to receive the maximum benefit and fruit from a Palin Presidency. Perhaps the Governor will have a truly CONSERVATIVE Congress to help her in her work of restoration by the time she arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I think that the Divine Spirit is working on the hearts of millions of Americans, like soil being prepared for its seed. (And note how the Governor speaks about a sense of purpose HOVERING just beyond her vision. The word "hovering" is most suggestive and significant!).

The seed shall be sown and the fruit come forth at the right and true hour, and not before.

Therefore, we can follow no finer, loftier, more royal road than the one traced out for us by Sarah in this beautiful passage.

As she went about her daily duties, including being a mom to young Piper, she prayed and prayed and prayed, saying to the Lord, in effect, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."

First mother to Piper and to her other kids; next mother to the State of Alaska; last, as we ardently hope and pray, MOTHER OF HER COUNTRY and indeed of FREE PEOPLES everywhere!!!

Let us follow her on this sometimes irksome, sometimes thorny, sometimes wearisome, sometimes painful, but ultimately glorious path.

MAY THE LORD'S WILL BE DONE, IN SARAH'S LIFE, IN OUR LIVES, IN AMERICA'S LIFE!!!


Read It For Yourself:

Other Great Sarah Books:

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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