Bill and George

Bill and George are coming to your house for dinner (as in “Clinton” and “H.W. Bush”).  Do you:

A.  Make sure they check their guns at the door.

B.  Bring in your most talkative friends to make sure the conversation doesn’t lag.

C.  Watch in awe as the two men relate to each other as true friends.

Here’s a hint – pick “C.”  Where am I getting this?  I am getting it from a source that I trust more than Bill or George.  I’m getting it from Barbara.  I have always admired Barbara Bush – the way she conducted herself as first lady, and the character and class that she exudes.

In an interview with C-SPAN, Barbara was asked about the friendship that her husband has developed with Bill Clinton.  The interviewer asked about her husband and Bill Clinton becoming friends.  She corrected him by saying, “My husband, Bill Clinton and I have become great friends.”  She went on to say that Bill visited them every summer and that while they don’t agree politically they don’t really talk politics. 

Barbara says, “Bills’ father wasn’t around, and I think he thinks of George a little bit like the father he didn’t have.  He is very loving to him.”  She then finished up with this bombshell:  “I love Bill Clinton.  Maybe not his politics – but I love Bill Clinton.”

(More at http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/barbara-bush-bill-clinton-love-son/2014/01/21/id/548178)

This fit in so well with Richard Rohr’s devotional for today entitled, Unity and Uniformity.  Rohr writes:

Many teachers have made the central but oft-missed point that unity is not the same as uniformity. Unity, in fact, is the reconciliation of differences, and those differences must be maintained—and yet overcome! You must actually distinguish things and separate them before you can spiritually unite them, usually at cost to yourself (Ephesians 2:14-16). If only we had made that simple clarification, so many problems—and overemphasized, separate identities—could have moved to a much higher level of love and service.

(More at http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Richard-Rohr-s-Meditation--Unity--Not-Uniformity.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=LV7QPnoncS4)

Bill and George certainly have their differences.  That’s OK.  More than OK, these differences “must be maintained and yet overcome,” if there is going to be anything like a loving relationship.  Bill and George have “moved to a higher level of love and service,” to put it in Rohr’s terms.  I find this refreshing, hopeful, and challenging.  The challenging part would be for us to “go and do likewise.”