Obama At The Beach

KAILUA —  Like a lot of people, my wife and I like the windward shore of Oahu for supreme relaxation and a touch of paradise on earth.  So too, does the Obama family.  We had heard they would be taking a short vacation somewhere nearby, but I didn’t think much of it.  After all, he was born on the island so it makes perfect sense he would want to relax with his family there.

My habit is to get down to the beach for the sunrise every chance I get.  And yes, I sit like a bump on the great log that washed up there many months ago.  I sit and let the star light warm my face until it soaks all the way into my soul.  Some mornings I’ll shiver a bit, but this morning was perfect.  I usually have my eyes closed for minutes at a time, but they opened on their own.  And there, in my imagination, walking along alone without a care in the world, was the president-elect.

“Hey,” he said.  Just “Hey.”

I’m not sure I got anything at all out of my pie hole before he casually reached into the surf, rescuing a small plumeria flower.  He just held it there for a few seconds, turning it slowly in the gentle light of morning.  Then this:  “Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”  Without missing much of a beat I said, “And, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is cut down and cast into the fire, how much more shall he clothe you, the ambassadors of the heavenly kingdom.”

He smiles.  “So you know your Bible?” he asked, and I felt his look.  My brain usually runs without the benefit of the throttle engaged, and it managed to cram in a few thoughts even before I can answer…  Like, he thinks you’re an old hippy on the beach; probably stoned; and probably thinking he should be on his way…

“Actually that’s not from the Bible,” I mutter.  He raised his chin as he considered that, and I said “Not everything Jesus said wound up in the Bible. . . but in other books. . .”

“Yep, I’m sure that’s true.  You live around here?”  We wade right into the small talk, while my brain is working overtime with things like, “He’ll be saying ‘Take it easy, now’ any second, and jogging off down the beach.”  I don’t look around for the Secret Service, I just know they’re there. But after a bit it’s clear;  we’re having a conversation.

I’m on vacation, and I know he is, too. For every way that my problems are his problems, I know it would be sadly wrong to talk about anything remotely like the shit that’s on our national plate right now.  He’ll have to start shoveling it soon enough.  So I paddled a few strokes into the vein he started.

“I imagine that talk with the apostles wasn’t about lilies, but about self-support.  Jesus was telling them, probably for the umpteenth time, that if they dedicated their lives to the work of the kingdom, all their real needs would be supplied.  Seek the greater thing, and the lesser will be found therein;  ask for the heavenly, and the earthly will be included.  The shadow is certain to follow the substance.”

He listened politely, even attentively, and studied me carefully.  He sat down on the log, and shoved his toes into the sand.  He spoke softly. “You know, that’s the kind of faith and hope we are in such need of right now, even though many of us already have it.  It’s infectious.  And it’s such a crucial part of our success.”  An outrigger canoe, barely 25 yards offshore, made its way across the sea in front of us before he continued.  “And people around the world are hungry for our nation to live up to our deepest values, you know… and, it’s time we not only live up to them, but take them even higher… make them real for as many as we possibly can.”

I nodded in agreement.  We talked a few more minutes.  Mostly about how to watch out for and work against fear, and doubts.  And for a few brief moments, I sat with Barack Obama, relaxed and contemplative, watching the gentle Lanakai waves roll in, and roll away again.  Just two biped creatures of some primitive evolving nation, on some primitive evolving planet in a vast universe;  sharing some time and space.

We wished each other a Happy Holiday.  And a Merry Christmas.  As he moved up the beach, I asked him if he’d stay in touch.  He said he’d try.  I believe he will.