They are from the in-between … from the edge of the cosmos … not alive any more. Sometimes they wonder why they are here or why they find themselves in strange places, but as soon as they reflect on this, something mysterious takes them deeper … Although they have no words, they know something. Or maybe they are about to know something.
This is one of those ‘times’. They are in the Oval Office in the White House, sitting in that customary oval of chairs and couches, waiting for President Obama and Michelle. They almost know something about why they are here.
President Obama and Michelle enter the room and each sit in one of two chairs positioned at the end near the president’s desk. They are both silent … in a trance like state.
Everyone here enters a stillness more silent than the hush of snow. Out of this silence, President Obama and Michelle begin talking as though they all have arrived at their usual meeting time.
Michelle:
We are at a loss. We wanted so much to help this country find new ways that truly represent its people and to help the people wake up and realize that they have value and deserve more. We wanted to respond with integrity and honor to others who were also willing to hold this with us.
And we wanted to diminish the manipulation, dishonesty, blackmail, and greed of a government that has greatly diminished its service to the people and instead serves those who pay the most money for getting directly whatever they want at the expense of humanity, the country, the world, and even the welfare of the earth, itself.
President Obama:
We seemed to have inspired more greed, blackmail, threats to our lives, greater recalcitrance, surges of disrespect for the earth, hate and polarization, and old warring patterns with the world. We feel that we may have failed at our desire and deep passion for helping our country to be the spirited and free leader for its own, as well as for the world … to be a country that operates with character, dignity, vitality, and vision … for the welfare and freedom of all.
I believe that I am on the brink of stepping up as the leader that I can be. I have previously tried to approach this from an old place inside myself. I am so independent and I do well with a lot of solitude. Being president doesn’t work well with these qualities being so prominent for me. I am changing inside. I want the same things, and I am ready to move in new ways. Can you help us?
Albert Einstein is sitting to president’s left. Anais Nin is to Michelle’s right. e.e.cummings, Walt Whitman, Erwin Schrodinger, Kurt Godel, Barbara McClintock, Carl Jung, Maya Angelou, and Virginia Woolf gather around them in the remaining 10 seats. There is a space between two end chairs in the oval of them all, across from the President and Michelle.
Einstein catches his breath in a moment of self-ignited awe — they are in a Round. There is a message here … the Knights of the Round … the Ancients’ Round … He knows now, in his afterlife … of the sacred myths. He knows the messages, hopes, inspiration, and information that they communicate through the metaphors they hold.
He now recognizes that they are there to support and to contribute to a new way of governing … to add wisdom and inspiration … and to receive from the President and Michelle. They would find a new way … together.
Oh, and he remembers the Ladies of the Round. Yes, the Sisters of the Cauldron. They hold the magic … the healing … the love. He can sense them all around. He is not going to share this with the president and Michelle though. It might scare them … even if they are in a dream together in the Oval Room, as they sleep downstairs.
McClintock:
I understand what you are saying, Michelle and Mr. President. I could see genes jumping around and changing positions, when no one else could possibly entertain this. They shamed me and tried to diminish who I was, tried to discredit me. It was not for many years, when another researcher, a man, would discover that I was correct all along … that I had found something ahead of its time. They gave me the nobel prize for this later.
I see both of you in a similar place. You have visions that are ahead of your time. Einstein had visions ahead of his time. We all did. Don’t give up. It is natural for others to be frightened and threatened by what you know to be more true. And yes, you need a new way of going about things, so that you make it possible for others to relate.
Anais Nin:
I believe that this begins with coming to know who you really are. When you know more of who you are, your presence comes forward … and contains all you need to change anything and everything.
If your words could create themselves to help others find a new way, what would they say? How would you change your inflections to sing your messages of hope … of honor and respect … of peace … of character, dignity, and vision … of freedom for all who wish to be free?
Whitman:
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.
Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?
Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.
Everyone goes still again … into that hush of silence.
Schrodinger:
Speaking of facing the sunshine, it is a part of our nature to be curious … to wonder … to imagine … Not everyone will reach out for a new way, but those of us who love to stand at the boundary of life … and look beyond it’s edge … will reach and leap … as long as mystery exists … And mystery can not be destroyed …
And all of this will eventually challenge what people see as the ‘facts’ of life … because life is not a concrete block. It breathes and is forever changing … like a forest … a field of wild flowers … the rhythm of the ocean …
So what does this say about us … about you, President Obama and Michelle?
We live within a symphony of the music of life and death … of giving and receiving … grieving and celebrating … letting go and holding on … dancing wildly and standing still …
We are ‘here’ and then we are not ‘here’.
And we can ask why. And this can beautifully fill our hearts and minds … We can explore ourselves … who we are … what we are … how are we … And this is beautiful…
We are reaching … beyond what we can see …
In-between … and yes beyond … but in-between what we can fathom … in-between time and space … we contemplate …
There is a power … a hush of knowing that lives where words can not go … This can hold the in-between of those words and bring them to life … to the mystery of life …
And out of this … we re-create who we are …
Woolf:
Yes, it is about re-creating ourselves. I could not fully do that during my life, but I am doing it now. The morning creates itself over and over from nowhere. And it is unique each and every time it births itself new.
Because the morning wants to create itself over and over, a new day will unfold again and again.
Each and every day gives us a place to play … to invent … to innovate new ways of living life … whether it be a morning and day in your current world … or whether we create this with our imagination on the edge of the cosmos. It is all the same, really.
This is your new day, Mr. President and Michelle. You are here to innovate a new way of living life … a new kind of leadership for your country and the world. Let go of worrying about whether people want what you want. The ones reaching for something ‘more’ … want what you want. Speak to them. The others will come along in time. The senate and house have become very invested in behaviors that are self-serving and destructive for our country. Don’t focus there.
Speak to those out there who live between the old and the new. They are not content, yet they do not know where to go. They are searching for a better world, in a genuine way. They just don’t know how to go about it all.
Einstein:
Quantum mechanics says that we can not separate ourselves as individuals. Relativity says that we have to study ourselves as individuals because there is an order and we are at its heart … Quantum says there are no secrets of individuality … only secrets of probability … And that the observer is always a participant, but that it doesn’t matter whether it is a metal plate or a person.
Others have been suggesting that there are extra dimensions of time/space … that could involve both … relativity theory and quantum mechanics …
In your modern world David Kaiser has written a book about – How the Hippies Saved Physics. He speaks of those physicists toward the later part of the 20th century who re-ignited the enchantment and the wonder that we, who lived around the turn into the 20th century, were so passionately pursuing. Our research was not as linear as that of your current time.
I have rambled but my point is that the two of you are approaching life from a more multidimensional perspective rather than a straight and linear perspective. You will be resisted, but if you play with this … not get too tight or righteous in your way of seeing things … then you will see … that your presence [who you naturally are] … will be your guide … And who you are … is not separate from life. You are also not separate from other forces and beings who are here to help you. You can lean on us.
President Obama:
Yes, I have been afraid to lean. This is new for me … other than how Michelle and I lean into and with one another. As I think of this, I realize that this is enough for me to begin.
Michelle:
We have tried to lean on some others and they have pulled the rug out from underneath our feet. We have become stoic in a way. I’ve become more private. Our lives have been threatened so many times. It has affected our family deeply.
e.e.cummings:
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Michelle and the President lean into one another as they sob the sounds of a world having mistaken itself for a lone island lost at sea.
[to be continued]
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