Inauguration’s Power of Authenticity Moved the Nation and World

This was because of three factors.

1. Seeing history happen live has a way of changing consciousness into what I call the Observer state. It's a highly attentive state.
2. From the standpoint of being a television production, it was world class. The skill of the on-camera "talent," second-by-second coordination of the video and audio, the choreography of all the movement, was largely Flow state. They were in the zone. Lady Gaga nailed the Star-Spangled Banner in Flow state every second.
3. But the most powerful factor was its authenticity. It was real. The people were for real.

When President Biden said his "whole soul is in it" -- into his job -- quoting Lincoln at the Gettysburg Address -- anyone without severe inner walls got it.

This was not a con. This is the man. He is doing exactly what he wants to do by taking leadership at a time like this. It's what he trained for. He has no other agenda.

He has his hands full with our agenda.

On a logical level, and felt on an emotional level, the message conveyed was that each of us needs there to be unity or we will fail to fix America.

"We do so [take oath of office] at a moment of great peril and promise for our nation. A once-in-a-century deadly pandemic. A historic and deepening economic crisis. Calls for racial justice some 400 years in the making. A climate crisis with force and fury. We also feel the rise in political extremism and domestic terrorism -- unleashed just days ago on our Capitol, the citadel of freedom, but brewing long before -- that we must confront and defeat."

All these problems we face cannot be overcome without unity. And what's to become of us if we don’t conquer all these problems? Obviously, we must stop abusing each other and get down to the problem-conquering together.

The President constrained himself to saying only the unarguable truth. This was wise.

"The Truth, Well Told" is the motto of the advertising agency Wunderman Thompson.

The truth spoken with deep empathy, by a person for whom the words are heartfelt ... that resonance has emotional power.

That is the power of authenticity.

Hard to argue with. To me it felt like being gently chewed out by your grandfather for having treated your brother like an enemy, and given a checklist of how to make it all better.

The one thing that I like best about President Biden's speech is when, after listing all the challenges we face, standing at the Capitol, where America made its decisions from the year 1800 until now, he reminded us of the many times we've been in deep trouble before, backs to the wall, and we always won in the end. Whenever we have unity, we can conquer anything.

He almost made me feel like we are lucky to have this historic challenge on our watch.

The individual people appearing afterward greatly augmented the President's already impactful speech. Each added more authenticity and Flow state to the cumulating emotional and logical effects. These are ideal conditions to get stuck people to reopen their minds.

A year of un-civil war "can be set aside" as U.S.A. Poet Laureate Amanda Gordon recited with the expressive gestures of a storyteller or shaman. Her personal up-to-the-minute poem ended with a stirring reminder of our common American Mission and the exhortation "Be Brave Enough to Be It." To be who we are, the dream of equality and freedom, the unfolding heroic American Story, the American Dream Coming True. That is us.

"Step up to being it" time -- hear the drums and the trumpets in your heart. This is a Calling of True Americans. Simply to cooperate in a polite manner. That’s the true patriotism and heroism called for at the moment.

The Reverend Dr. Sylvester Beaman prayed to God, asking for the specific help that we need to work and coexist together as neighbors, and to give up sowing division.

This televised historic event was exactly what we needed to experience. The right way to wake us up out of the divided delusion. It is not easy to do, but this production and these authentic and dedicated people achieved it. I cannot think of any television special in history that was as important to get right. And prayer works, they did get it right.

We will see what its effects shall be. I for one was moved. I've given up talking about last year, or any form of pessimism.

There used to be too much of that, before the Inauguration.

Now the rest is up to all of us. We are each being called to set aside our differences and agree to disagree but to otherwise go back to what the Bible tells us to do about other people. And to cooperate to get new laws passed as fast as they are needed. And to stopping being dragged back into last year's way of looking at things. The time now requires courage, cooperation, respect, creativity, law abidance, empathy, unity. We are being called to rise to that level, to being our very best, because our backs are against the wall.

We need to be able to hold empathy, confidence, courage, determination, hope, faith in ourselves, and cautious optimism, in scope all at the same time.

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