Over the years in American politics, there have been many charismatic black leaders. Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, and Malcolm X come to mind. Al Sharpton, has been in the news recently, so his name also comes to the fore. I am only slightly familiar with these men, I have not read many of their works. I do not know exactly what they represent and in what they believe. But I will say, wholeheartedly, that from a american political standpoint, they are “black.” That is, black spokespeople, black representatives, and some - black politicians.
From the standpoint of electing a President, if you voted for Jesse Jackson years ago, you would have been voting for a representative of black people. Not that such an abstraction, such as “black people” really exists in the world, it’s just a misguided human categorization. But regardless, I think you can get the point - the cross over appeal of Jesse Jackson to “white america” (another bogus distinction) was limited.
Barack Obama? He is a different story. He’s not just a black man, or a white man, or a professor, lawyer or community organizer. He’s not just an American or a Kenyan or a man with an Arabic middle name. He transcends categories. It’s not an accident. He has done so methodically, willingly and with deliberate thought and action. He is everything that I have listed above and a President, Father, Husband, Man and judging by the multi-colored Obama t-shirt that I am wearing right now; He is also a work of art.
This leads me, in my own experience, to the attempts by students of Moshe Feldenkrais to identify themselves as “Feldenkrais Practitioners.” Felden-what? Feldenchrist?! What was Moshe Feldenkrais to you? A great man? A great Jew? A scientist? A guru? An object of love, admiration, hate, indifference? Whatever he “is” or “is not” to you - I think it’s important to realize that the larger world will largely not give a damn. Individuals have their own unique needs, beliefs, language, culture and experience. They will interpret and re-interpret based on their wants.
For this method to grow exponentially, and to do so in a way that respects the unique needs of the people who will encounter it, it will need to be explained and presented in a ways that makes sense to others - not just to people who have trained in the method. And not solely in the idiosyncratic and obscure language of a russian-born, scientist, jew, polyglot, and genius, who died 20 years ago.
During the election, Barack Obama did not speak solely to black needs and black values. He saw correctly that there is no such thing. He spoke to deeper values that nearly all people share - the desire to be respected, to have basic human dignity, to grow, to love, to learn, to eat, to have a job and a roof over one’s head, to protect the planet. Those are not black nor white values. Those are not christian values, nor jewish values, nor arabic values. Those are not American values. And they sure as hell are not Feldenkrais values. They are human values. And in Barack Obama’s case, they are wrapped in a narrative and a story that people want to hear, want to repeat, and in which they want to believe.
Where is that story for you and your life? How soon will you start telling it? And to who? And how often will you revise it, until it truly speaks to yourself and the people that you want to reach? And if you don’t, why should anyone listen to you?
You do not expect people to imitate the way you move. Why in the hell should they imitate the way that you think?
