Which Wolf Will You Feed?

Every once in a while, an event for politicians holds the potential to nudge all of us to higher ground.

I'm not referring to Barack Obama's inaugural address. Great speech, terrific music, but at the end of the day, even the most inspired among us shook our heads over the enormous task ahead of him , not us.

The Breton fisherman's prayer, which hung as a plaque in John F. Kennedy's Oval Office, comes to mind: "O, God, Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small."

Perhaps that is our wish as much as our fear — that we can't possibly have anything to do with what happens next. If we think we can't change anything, we are absolved from trying.

Maybe that's why my own goose bumps came, not at the inauguration, but at the national prayer service the following morning. The message there was all too clear: When it comes to stoking the embers of hope, no one is off the hook.

After a long night of inaugural balls, the new president and his wife joined 3,500 people gathered at the Washington National Cathedral for the 56th presidential inaugural service. Prayers were led by the most diverse group of clergy in the service's history and included three rabbis, an evangelical Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu and Cleveland's own Rev. Dr. Otis Moss Jr., who is pastor emeritus at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church. For the first time, a woman, the Rev. Sharon E. Watkins, delivered the main sermon.

The service was meant to bolster Obama as he embarks on the mission to fulfill his promises to a country starving for change.

There were prayers for him, of course, and other elected officials, as well as those who serve on courts and in the armed services. There were also pleas for the hungry and the homeless, the sick and the suffering, and those hurt by the current economy. Then we asked God to give all of us the courage "to embrace our wondrous diversity."

Watkins, who is the general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), first beseeched Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden to "hold the ground of your deepest values, of our deepest values … (and) stay focused on our shared hopes so that we can continue to hope, too.

We will follow your lead."

Then she shared a Cherokee fable that felt like a call for personal responsibility from all of us:

"One evening, a grandfather was teaching his young grandson about the internal battle that each person faces.

"'There are two wolves struggling inside each of us,' the old man said.

"'One wolf is vengefulness, anger, resentment, self-pity, fear. The other wolf is compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, love.'

"The grandson sat, thinking, then asked: 'Which wolf wins, Grandfather?'

"His grandfather replied, 'The one you feed.'"

We have two choices in the challenging months ahead. We can have a celebratory moment or a movement. Each of us has to ask him or herself: Which wolf will I feed?

Some have made up their minds early. Already my inbox fills with calls and e-mails assuring me that plenty of Americans will not be swayed by the public swoon for Obama, as if the only options were idolatry or scorn.

The worst of these messages make analogies to followers of Adolf Hitler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein, and they echo the rancorous comments left on many blogs.

Many have written or called to express despair over these comments. Do not fret. There always will be a minority of people who let their wolves of resentment eat them alive.

Our best response is to starve that beast within us and make sure our wolves of hope never go hungry.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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