I am a subscriber to a number of local message boards here in the Portland area, and there is one particular Inauguration Day event that has been posted and re-posted several times over on all these lists in the past week:

Inauguration Day Drumming to Lift the Hex on the President

The idea behind this is to get a bunch of magical and intention-minded people together for some collective drumming to free the mind and heart of President George W. Bush from the hex that has been placed on him.

I hadn’t previously known that there was such a hex on the president, but I suppose this is a more complimentary alternative than simply assuming that he is honestly myopic and narrow-minded of his own accord.

Another friend has urged like-minded folks to place blue candles in their windows on Inauguration Day — blue, in honor of the blue states and as a gentle protest to Bush’s second term.

Personally, I plan to observe the event through prayer and meditation. I’ll also have at least one lit candle, but it will be white. I’ve not yet decided if I will tune in on television or radio to any of the official inaugural events taking place in Washington, D.C. I want to be constructive with my energy, and I long-ago came to understand that Bush just makes me feel frustrated and sad.

I pray frequently for Mr. Bush. I pray for the opening of his mind and heart. I pray that he might feel the pain of others, especially any pain that his policies and public statements may have caused. I pray that he might gain the understanding that “different” does not necessarily equal “bad,” and that if he is concerned about profits measured only in dollars then he is looking at the wrong bottom line. I pray that he might see with his heart, and with that new-found compassion he might look beyond the stratification of American society, beyond the borders of this country, and beyond the confines of his own mind.

Mostly, though, I pray for him to prove me wrong — that he is not in the least bigoted, ethnocentric, homophobic, fundamentalist, sexist, insensitive, weak-minded, greedy, and immature. I would be very happy to be wrong about that when it comes to the person sitting in the White House.

Maybe come Inauguration Day, I’ll get out my own drum.