I wasn’t going to comment on this, but….

The other day my therapist told me I was “different”. Obviously everyone is different, and he did say – reassuringly explicitly – that I wasn’t “different” in the sense of being dysfunctional (along the lines of, eg, crack addicts or something like that); another thing that my therapist said is that I’m not someone who needs therapy, I just want to grow as a person. It put me in mind of a comment from a friend in church about the recent unpleasantness in the parish (on which topic I might write something before too long – in brief, as it is no longer in any way a secret, I asked the Director of Music here to retire) who wrote to me – objecting to what I’d done – but did so in a really nice way, listing my various eccentricities, such as growing a ponytail and taking a service whilst wearing a Hawaiian shirt. That’s what the therapist had in mind – I’m an eccentric. Which is fine, I probably am.

I think that one of the reasons why people find me a bit eccentric is that, to borrow the cliche, I march to the sound of a different drum. I would say (I would wouldn’t I?) that I’m trying, more or less successfully, to follow what God is telling me to do, and that, inevitably, leads to conflict with the consensus of a particular community – any community. I also suspect that I’m keener on the truth – possibly to a pathological degree – than is comfortable for most people. (I should add that sometimes my pursuit of truth is a tilting at windmills; one example would be the 9/11 truth movement which I spent some time having sympathy for, but mostly don’t any more. Thing is, having explored the issue in a great deal of depth I end up in a place which is much more solidly grounded than before, even if where I end up is basically where conventional opinion is – to leave a place and return and know it for the first time – but that’s what happens when you grow.)

So, all that is by way of preamble, and why I mention it is because of all the crap that is being hurled at Palin over her decision to resign from being Governor – which is, of course, not much changed from all the crap that has been sent her way for most of the last year. She is marching to the sound of her own drum, she is an independent eccentric and it scares the willies out of conventional consensus opinion – because she has the capacity to be a game changer. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

She said “Energy independence and national security, fiscal restraint, smaller government, and local control have been my priorities and will remain my priorities.” That’s a genuinely conservative statement of principles – and a statement of genuinely conservative principles which I’d support. In the context of the utter FUBAR of Obama’s economic policies I can well imagine her becoming the head of a revolutionary movement that takes her into higher reaches of power, not least given the three years of mounting disaster that the US will endure in the meantime. But maybe that’s just me tilting at windmills again.

Anyhow, I recognise, respect and admire her independence of character. Even if she never runs for political office again (and I wouldn’t blame her for making that decision): Go Sarah!