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Barack doesn’t smile much, at least in my estimation and in comparison to W. or Clinton. As my mom and I talked about him and inauguration day on the eve of the event, we noted a heaviness about him, even melancholy.

We wondered, briefly, why we weren’t swept up in the whimsy. To be sure, I have great hope for Barack, the new administration, this country and the world. I am humbled and excited for all of us who cheer, celebrate and remember their own power and possibility because they see a man of color, distinction and purpose in the White House.

photo credit: BL1961

President Barack Heussein Obama

Still, Barack doesn’t smile much, at least not about the pageantry and fantasy of Camelot and the Presidency. My guess is because he is aware that money, “differences” and institutions are illusions. I am not sure we can handle these kinds of truths; Barack knows that (i.e., both more of the truth and the fact that we cannot handle it). Still he must lead, and that is why he is encouraging us to be citizens from the inside out. What can we do? What service can we provide? What must we sacrifice?

Change must happen on the inside first:

First clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside may be clean also.

We are not going to see the outside world change much (greed, war, poverty, separation, injustice) until we change. An act of war at the office, is an act of war abroad. Greed at home, is the same greed on Wall Street. A blind eye to the impoverished on our city streets, is a blind eye to the impoverished of the world. The mining of rights of minorities is the ungirding of the rights of all.

This Saturday, I attended an interfaith service to bless President Obama, the task before him, before our nation, and before each individual. I learned that his mother and grandmother were Unitarian Universalists, his father a Muslim. Barack is a walking, talking example of the consciousness that will be required for peace.  Religions and ideologies have to be able to coalesce into one. Not sacrifice their identities and purposes, but exist freely because they allow all others to exist freely; this is the only true freedom. Races must not see themselves as separate, not to sacrifice rich heritages and legacies, but in an embrace of the many colors, flavors and bouquets. We must all see there is enough (money, resources, food), not so we have to sacrifice all our own interests, but in the hopes we do not do so to the detriment of others.

Recently, I realized I have lost my faith in institutions: schools, religious organizations, the government, nations. Today, listening to our President, watching the faces of those in the crowd, hearing the cries of those in the room with me, I remembered where to place that faith. In you. In me. We occupy those institutions so only we can change them. Barack is the finger; he is pointing to a (most profound) Way: unity and service. I give thanks for him today, and everyday. I believe he will provide the institutional foundation and systemic encouragement to march, to focus, to be single-minded, and zealous in pursuit and honor (not of a man, President or symbol) of our own innate greatness, as individuals and communities. As he shared today, “[greatness] is never a given, it must be earned.” Indeed,

the greatest among us is a servant to others

Earn greatness everywhere you go, in everything you do. Serve greatness as the one slow to anger, as the one who always has an encouraging word. Be the greatest because you give from love and love to give. In what I have seen and heard, Barack never really refers to himself or what he is going to do. He refers to “us, we,” because we MUST. We must each be the doers. We must be the agent of change in our homes. The president of unity in our churches. We must be the secretaries of peace and diplomacy whether in line at McDonald’s or in a court of law. While it is altogether possible that you will be one of the next Presidents of the United States, take the oath today, to defend the constitution of equality, compassion, selflessness, and love.

“All this we can do. All this we will do.” – President Barack Obama.

Copyright © 2009 Garry Bevel