Sarah Palin and Conventional Wisdom

Sarah Plain’s decision to leave office in Alaska has aptly highlighted the irony of "conventional wisdom."

I've got news for all the media pundits, Washingtonian elites and beltway political junkies, who walk in lock-step with each other, their mediocrity ricocheting like images on a mirror, with about as much reality as an amusement park fun house.

I pity this self-absorbed, arrogant class of bland uninteresting pundits for they have lost the ability to think and thereby intuit creatively.

Sarah Palin is not one of them, there is a profound difference in her; the public sees it plain as day but it totally eludes the elites. They are blind as bats here. In some respect, its laughable, however, with the state of our country, the critical stakes for the future in mind, on another level, it is extremely disconcerting.

To put it simply, one need only go back to another unconventional soul, Henry David Thoreau. Sarah Palin's personhood "beats to the beat of a different drummer," and this is exactly what makes her hated by the left and misunderstood and underestimated by elites on the Right.

However, to be a "real" leader, not a badly orchestrated facade, like Obama, the ability to "think outside the box," to incorporate a certain, spiritually guided risk into one's existence and bravely act on it, is more than an eccentricity, it is a necessity.

Risk, by definition requires a potential cost. As we celebrate July 4th this weekend, I am reminded of what many of the soldier's under George Washington's seemingly hopeless cause answered, when their peers, who thought it safer to stay within the folds of King George, asked them why they chose to stay and fight, with little food, no uniforms, few weapons and rampant diseaase? Their answers, revealed in extant letters, was simple; this man has risked everything, including his fortune, his honor and his life for the cause of freedom; "I cannot abandon a man who has so courageously put everything on the line." George Washington risked, his heart heard a distant drummer; this is the sign of a real leader!

From a theological perspective, one need only look at the story of the Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. The conventional wisdom of the day was that Jews should have no contact whatsoever with Samaritans. The history went back centuries, but basically, Samaritan’s were considered apostates and “untouchables.” It went so far that Jews would not even take a road through Samaritan territory, instead traveling for miles out of their way for the sake of avoidance.

It was the hottest part of the day when this woman went to draw water. One did not endanger himself this way ordinarily. The cooler hours of morning or evening were far more typical, unless, of course, one was an outcast, even in Samaritan society.

She did not want to be seen by respectable people. What an irony! She comes upon God incarnate. Not only does Our Lord speak with her, in spite of her own sarcasm toward Him, but He lays bare His own divinity by telling her every detail about her life. Furthermore, he shares with this complete societal outcast the secret of true wisdom. True wisdom is not like this water which quenches thirst for the moment. On the contrary, true wisdom is like a fountain forever brimming over to eternal life. He explains to her that God seeks those who will worship “in spirit and in truth, for God is spirit.” In other words, worship has nothing to do with conventional wisdom, it has only to do with truth.

Conventional wisdom and truth have nothing to do with each other, one speaks to reality, the other to a mirage. It is deadly to a creative life, to leadership and to vision. And, it is not the stuff that motivated men like our founding fathers nor laid the cornerstone of freedom for this great nation.

I don't know what will become of Sarah Palin, but I have confidence that whatever, path her life takes she will be just fine. Why? Because she has already demonstrated in her life's choices that she is a free and independent thinker, she is not afraid of risk but feels more comfortable fighting against conventional wisdom than rushing headlong with it. She is creative, courageous and unafraid. In a word, she is a leader.

God's speed Sarah, whether you are one day President or not!