The Dithering of a District Diva

One of my favorite tea party criticisms of President Barack Obama is that he hates “American Exceptionalism.” Yes, the Columbia/Harvard Law graduate, self-made millionaire, and leader of the entire free world simply cannot stand to be the best.  This is certainly reflected in his choice of an equally ivy-league-educated wife,  administration, and Supreme Court nominees.

Oh, right. When we start focusing on facts instead of fantasy, then the only obvious conclusion we can come to is my other favorite Obama criticism: He is “elitist, arrogant, and out of touch with the everyday person.”  *Pay no attention to the blaring contradiction* Blessed (cursed?) with the kind of amnesia one can only have after repeatedly banging one’s head against a wall for eight long years, some critics have even found themselves longing for the days when W. was The Decider.  Now there’s a guy we can have a beer with! (Ignore the fact that he’s a recovering alcoholic, making beer-drinking probably not the best idea.)

And all that “American Exceptionalism” talk just goes right out of the window. Because let’s just be honest with ourselves: we have no desire to be exceptional.  We do not value the exceptional.  Instead, we really, really, like it when people are rewarded for basically doing nothing at all, displaying no talent whatsoever, and putting in — what should be seen as — offensively minimal effort.  (I’m talking to you, Paris Hilton! — and your progeny.)

Take, for example, Bristol Palin, spawn of one Sarah Palin (you may have heard of her).  Never dancing a day in her life, and being no where near a “star,” Bristol the Pistol still somehow managed to sashay her way onto ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and is right on track to win the dancing competition, irrespective of the fact that she is indisputably, a God-awful dancer.  She’s already bested R&B singer Brandy, who has been perfecting the craft of performing since she was a child and received nearly perfect scores from the judges in the competition.  Granted, there is evidence that a loop-hole in ABC’s email voting has allowed rampant tea party fraud to carry Palin all the way through to the end.  But DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba has a different view of why Bristol just might win this competition:

“A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘I want to be on Dancing with the Stars. Why don’t they have a regular-people version?’ And I feel like that’s what Bristol Palin is. She’s a regular girl with normal problems and normal issues, and I think a lot of people look at her and see themselves.”

Other people look at her and see a hot mess.  In fact, a 66-year-old Wisconsin man was so infuriated with Bristol Palin’s most recent performance — or mere presence, one cannot be sure — that he unloaded his shotgun into his own television set. While I wouldn’t recommend it, I certainly sympathize with his frustration.  Why don’t we care about talent? When did anti-intellectualism become en vogue? What is it about this revamped “American Dream” where we feel we really can be “anything we want to be” without trying very hard? Without any sort of assessment as to what our true gifts are or what our intended purpose is?

The answer seems quite simple:  If we value wisdom, knowledge, exceptionalism, and actual unyielding pursuit of our God-given passions and talents, then we might actually have to be wise, obtain knowledge, be exceptional, and unyieldingly pursue our God-given passions and talents.  We’d have to be accountable.  And that is a lot of pressure and responsibility.  And it is scary. I mean, what if we fail? And even worse: what if we succeed?

As Marianne Williamson says:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear
is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually who are we not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people
won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And when we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

I’ve never been foolish enough to believe we live in a merit-based society, one where those who work the hardest and “deserve” commendation and notoriety actually receive it — not when cronyism, nepotism, racism, and sexism are on the loose.  But wouldn’t it be nice if we could come to the collective understanding that “American Exceptionalism” doesn’t come from some Americans making up the undisputed strongest military in the world, or some Americans’ ingenious inventions, or some Americans mastering life-changing medical procedures, or some Americans making nothing into something.  “American Exceptionalism” should be less of an opportunity to pass the buck onto someone else to be exceptional, all while claiming bragging rights for ourselves as Americans, and wrapping ourselves snugly within the American flag.  “American Exceptionalism” should invoke within us a sense of duty, a self- and group-expectation, that each of us become exceptional, thus normalizing the outstanding. (If non-dancing, non-star Bristol Palin can win Dancing with the Stars, then this seeming contradiction should also be able to stand!)

And not just because we want notoriety, commendation, success, riches, glory.  But simply because God is exceptional. He has equipped us all to do the exceptional, with His help, so that other people would see how awesome God is through the work He has helped us to do, and will desire to know Him better. As I’ve quoted many times on this blog, Pastor J.R. Vassar explains that when we:

get liberated from your incessant need to be loved and honored, you can actually live with this new consuming desire to see God loved, to see God honored. So the ruling desire of your heart is to see the Father loved and exalted, like Jesus lived to see the Father loved and exalted.

What kind of country — what kind of world — would we live in if everyone made it their singular goal to declare war on mediocrity and live an exceptional life, simply to please God and stir a desire in others to be close to Him? It is unimaginable. But in a day when far crazier and less beneficial things have happened, it is certainly not impossible.

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