So, word on the Buddhist street is that during the inauguration, Obama had a khata in his pocket, that the First Lady’s escort, Richard Blum, had been given by the Dalai Lama at some point. Truth or urban myth? Not sure, although the source I got it from was only two degrees of separation from the people involved. Whatever — it is a wonderful image.
(For anyone who doesn’t know, a khata is a white scarf that one gives to a lama who blesses it and gives it back.)
I am in floods of tears looking at pre-inauguration pictures of Obama and the crowds gathering in Washington. I realize that somewhere deep in my psyche, I had given up on a leader of this calibre appearing in my lifetime. I grew up in an era when the good guys got shot, and I have been holding my breath for a year.
Now he is actually being inaugurated I am beginning to let myself believe that an intelligent, spiritual, ethical, inspired person can be President of the US, and that world decisions will be influenced and shaped from that wholeness of being.
It is such overwhelmingly good news, it makes me feel faint, while daring to hope. My feet long to feel a ground that is secure; my heart yearns for wise leaders to trust; my soul longs for a world in which a generous and inclusive intelligence makes the big decisions that affect us all.
I think this is who he is, how he thinks, what he wants to do. May it be so.
