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The Al Gore fable
Al Gore is in the news again. But this time he’s not being roundly criticized for donning earth tone clothes or for his wooden speechmaking. Rather, we’re witnessing his civic redemption, and it’s worth noting for the insights each of us can gain. After Gore lost the 2000 presidential election, he reappeared on the public scene masked in a heavy beard and some additional weight. Many pundits found much to mock in him – from his comments about “inventing the Internet,” to his poor campaigning style, to his new look. But to his credit, Gore went off and found inspiration in a collection of activities that called him to step forward anew. He launched a TV initiative as well as joined the boards of intriguing companies. He put together a series of hard-hitting speeches on critical issues of our time. He responded to the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Most recently, he is gaining attention for his new documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, about the perils of global warming, which has received its own warm reviews. Now, some people are even pining for him to return to elective politics in 2008. Maybe Gore, the man once belittled for losing the White House to George W. Bush, is showing his true colors. Perhaps we saw the first glimpses of this even amid his crushing defeat, when he found a way to be gracious and compelling in his concession. For me, Gore’s story is a kind of modern-day fable. Here is a man who was expected to reach great heights and did. But when he reached for the prize, he stumbled badly, only to be ridiculed before millions of people. What would each of us do in such circumstances? Many of us might retreat and hide, become deflated and cynical. It would be easy to stand up and rail against those who defeated us as a way to console our own shortcomings or prove our own mettle. But we now know that the former vice president took a different path. He seems to have stopped long enough to hear his own voice, about what truly motivates him, which inspired him to step forward in a new way. Yes, Gore has recently acknowledged that he would still love to be president; but he knows, at least for now, that there are other ways to serve his country. And the path he has chosen does not seem to be invented out of whole cloth; nor does it seem concocted by a public relations guru. Rather, Gore seems to finally be himself. After years of ridicule, people are giving Gore another look. Maybe he has finally come upon the credibility and trust he has been pursuing for a lifetime. Strangely enough, he had to take a different path to find it.