November 4, 2008: The TwoLads Election Day Special - Part 2: Daniel's "Special Relationship" with John McCain

In spite of his explicit political commitment to "Rakabama", which might seem to be a repudiation of the GOP, Daniel is actually far more concerned about John McCain in everyday life. Daniel has been trying, for about a month now, to figure out exactly how John McCain fits into his life, and he revisits this Socratic process a fair bit. But what's especially interesting about Daniel's integration of John McCain into his own world, is that he seems to feel that McCain pertains more than anywhere else, to the spiritual realm.

In our evening prayers, we list all of our aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, teachers, etc., and Daniel has volunteered John McCain's name for prayer toward the end of the evening litany. Even a navy-blue democrat would have to go along with that - we all need prayer, including the senior Senator from Arizona.

Last month, we visited a Russian monastery in upstate New York (Jordanville), and, when there was a lull in the Sunday Liturgy during the sermon, I decided to preoccupy Daniel's energy with a visit to the downstairs chapel, which was empty at the time, where we kissed the icons and I gave him a bit of catechism-for-toddlers. At one point, I showed him an icon and said, "This is Saint Gregory." Daniel wanted to know, "Where's John McCain."

I didn't see any icons of John McCain. And since New York is super-dooper-"blue" (Democrat), with no "battleground" potential and all electoral votes destined for Obama's column, I don't think we would have been able to find John McCain *or* Barack Obama upstairs lighting candles, so I didn't bother to conduct a search.

Then, about two weeks ago, Daniel asked me,

- Daddy, does God love me?

- Oh yes. God loves you very, very, very much.

- Does Saint Seraphim love me?

- Oh yes. Saint Seraphim loves you very, very, very much.

- Does John McCain love me?

Pause.

I backed up a bit, and explained that John McCain problably didn't have the vantage point to know who Daniel was. Not to say that he *wouldn't* love Daniel if he knew him. In fact, John McCain might have a broad love for humanity that includes Daniel among its numbers. But I just went with a simpler "he doesn't know you," kind of disclaimer.

Who's to say?

Finally, about a week and a half ago, I was trying to remind Daniel about the Prophet Daniel, whose Lions' Den visit we have sometimes discussed, so I asked him:

"Daniel, who's your special Saint?"

Daniel answered in more of a questioning than an affirmative tone, as if running the answer by me for confirmation or correction:

"My special saint is... not... John McCain?"