Self-control

Everyone wants to be close to the centre of power.

If we can't be there ourselves we can do so vicariously by "knowing" someone - who does.

I don't know how many degrees of separation are between Barack and us.

Probably a lot fewer than we think.

Though the link was not a strong one - I found out that I was only one relationship away from Bill and Hillary Clinton.

While studying in New Haven, I had the blessing of being given a studio apartment in the attic of a grand old mansion in exchange for a certain numbers of hours of work a week. My hosts were the venerable Boris and Anne Bittker - fine, genteel folks.

Prof. Bittker was an esteemed emeritus professor of the Yale Law School and had made a name for himself in tax law. I was their gardener and odd jobs man. Probably odder than they were used to, but they tolerated me kindly and I spent happy hours listening to National Public Radio and doing the tasks they set for me.

We were in the Clinton era and I asked Prof. Bittker if he had any contact with them. Yes, he said wryly. He had taught them both. They were both very noticeable even in those days - but he remembered Hillary more. She had a real mind and was in the middle of everything (exact quote being a bit muddled but something to that effect). Prof. Bittker remembered Bill - but also remembered that he was busy out pressing the flesh - doing lots of extra-curricular (read political) things even then, while Hillary was grounded and flourished in the Law School.

I don't know Bill Clinton personally, but what I gather about him is the extraordinary effect he has on individuals. He seems to want the love - to have personal approval of everyone he meet - and works hard at giving it too - apparently just being with him is a remarkable experience.

Here is where the amazing phenomena of Barack Obama seems so different. Both Bill and Barack are driven (and have more in common than the same first initial). But it seems to me that Barack has something that I have not seen in a long time. He seems to exude self-control. It was his calm unflappable nature - almost bordering on the cold that is so enigmatic. So much so that the travelling hacks that reported on everything he did (including breathless discriptions of him eating sandwiches and flies forcing him to move somewhere else) seem mystified at who he really is. More than one mused: Is there another Barack below the Barack they see on the surface?

I will not go any more than that - but to say this: self-control is perhaps one of the great missing dimensions in most of our lives. We know that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. A character linked with the very nature of God himself. Something that I so often do not have. Something impossible to duplicate or fabricate. You have it or you don't. Pressure brings it out - or tears any pretense of it to shreds.

Here's to you Barack! I don't know much about you - everything that I do has come through the eyes and ears of others. And I don't know yet how closely we are linked, but among many other things to admire, I deeply admire your self-control.