Messengers
If you’ve watched Michael Cohen in the news, even if you’ve only seen pictures of Cohen coming and going from the court room, you’ve seen Lanny Davis. And if you’ve seen Lanny Davis, you know, in your heart, Michael Cohen is sincere, you know, things in New York at least, are going to be okay.
There are half a dozen objective, concrete reasons to feel this way. Davis has served as an advisor to Presidents Bush and Clinton, he is married to the Legislative Director for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. His life has been dedicated to public service regardless of which political party holds power. He is respected as a voice of ethical guidance on the right and the left. But check your feelings when you see Lanny Davis standing behind Michael Cohen as reporters ask questions or as Cohen testifies to Congress and looking at the man, you just feel better. You feel reassured.
Lanny Davis made Michael Cohen clean up his act. He encouraged Cohen to tell the whole truth and accept the blame and the consequences. Lanny Davis reminded Michael Cohen of his oath as an attorney, his duty as a citizen and, I think, he reminded Cohen about what it meant to be a person of faith living in the Jewish tradition. That makes Lanny Davis a kind of angel.
I know that might sound extreme but hear me out. The word “angel” means, literally, messenger. Angels are the messngers in our lives that bring us back to ourselves. They remind us that we are brave. They reassure us that we are worth saving. They guide our steps toward the light and away from the darkness. There doesn’t have to be anything mystical about it. You’ve had angels in your life. Sometimes they are strangers, sometimes they’re Elders, (like Davis) sometimes they’re friends and loved ones. Angels are the messengers that come from the source of our higher natures, whether that is plain old biology or something more abstract. They pull us back from the brink of disaster, they show us the way.
When I’m feeling discouraged and I think the whole world is just circling th drain, I look for people like Lanny Davis. I remember the messengers I’ve met along the way; the Elders who steered me away from the rocks of my own ego, the ladies in retail who taught me about dignity and compassion, even when others don’t see your worth, the stranger who pulled me off the crosswalk in Ottawa, physically, and out of the path of a speeding bus that did not see me, when I was distracted by my phone.
Angels are everywhere, they are messengers among us. There are times when you might even be one of them. I’m starting to ramble now, so I’ll stop soon, but I just wanted it to be out there, for people to know, you’re not crazy when you feel comforted just by the sight of a person, you’ve just seen an angel and it’s okay to feel good about that.
