Brilliance

The Given Self is now in Norway!

My daughter Mia was the first person I knew who got enamored by Obama. I’m still pretty proud of her about that. Angie and I followed suit pretty quickly, but Mia’s response came before Obama became widely talked about. It was an intuitive reaction on her part. She said his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 made her cry. She now judges all speeches this way. If they don’t make you cry, they’re not up to par.

As I’ve been following the Nobel events, one of the things that amazes me is that I actually have friends in Norway; that A Course of Love brought them to me, and that at least one Norwegian friend is now in possession of The Given Self. This woman wrote me about the Obama visit. She said she wasn’t sure the prize was a good thing to do and quoted an American journalist cited in her newspaper Aftenposten: "Obama assigned the peace prize - but that is not his fault".

My friend continued: “For all Norwegians love Obama, and find it very exciting that Oslo gets a touch from the real big world these days, as my colleague said.”

I know a lot of people are questioning the prize, especially in light of the build up of troops in Afghanistan. But since it was announced, I’ve felt tremendously uplifted by it. It feels like a recognition of the power of words and of thoughtfulness, and of the brilliance that human beings are capable of even in the midst of all that bogs us down.

I don’t go in for “pie in the sky” uplifting, but the message Obama delivers over and over is one that calls on the best of our humanity to face the worst, and it always give me the feeling that we confront both in ourselves and have the power to choose.

It’s kind of like that great line from the movie “As Good as it Gets,” when Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt are fighting in a restaurant and she says she needs a compliment, and fast, and he says he’s got a great one ready. Then he adjusts himself, and leans in close, and says, “You make me want to be a better man.”