Barack Obama is not the Messiah.

I admire audacity. Not like "the audacity of hope", that is for sissies. Audacity like a criminal mastermind. Those guys are always getting away with the most ridiculous crap, and it's not like they're that much smarter than anyone else, they just have the cojones to try something totally insane, which is why no one expects it, which is why it works.

I suspect that the world would be a much more disordered place if most of us weren't instilled with a deep fear of failure and punishment. Our justice system doesn't even take care of all the stupid criminals, let alone the smooth ones. I'm pretty sure most of us can (and would) get away with a lot more than we think, if we just had the audacity.

Maybe it has to do with motivation. No one understands their potential until they have a good reason to test it... when the dread of the act is overpowered by some stronger compulsion. I've never been hungry, never been in love, never had my ideals demand that much of me. I'm not a megalomaniac, as far as I know. I'm generally pretty happy. What do I want to be audacious for?

Maybe for fear of being dull... or for the sense I have that my life would be better if it were more exciting. But what's the price? People who make the news seem to be almost universally unhappy... and the most driven, bold missionaries I knew in the field were generally the most miserable, because they were driven by fear: fear of shame, fear of disappointing their families, fear of their great-great-great-uncle Willard Richards... It looked like righteousness, but any slave can work himself to exhaustion. You didn't have to look much closer to see the malice and selfishness in it... like they were so afraid of missing heaven that they didn't care who they had to trample to get there.

But then there were those elders who were just as bold and driven, but driven by faith; and those were the ones who loved the work. They trusted a promise, staked their claim on it, and always came out on top. That's the kind of audacious I want to be. Now I just need to find some wild exploit to which there's a blessing attached. I'll let you know when I think of something.