It just happened, slipped out—from deep inside of her—in a quiet but stunning way. It was April and her father was dying in the hospital and Hillary Rodham Clinton was standing at a lectern in Austin: "We need a new politics of meaning," she said. People wondered what to make of this at first. Maybe they still wonder what to make of it. But there in Texas, she finally revealed the biggest piece of herself yet, just said it: In the midst of redesigning America's health care system and replacing Madonna as our leading cult figure, the new First Lady has already begun working on her next project, far more metaphysical and uplifting.
"It's not going to be easy," she said.
What?
"It's not going to be easy," she said, "redefining who we are as human beings in this postmodern age."...
She is both impersonal and poignant, with much more depth, intellect and spirituality than we are used to in a politician... She has goals, but they appear to be so huge and far off—grand and noble things twinkling in the distance—that it's hard to see what she sees.
...and this is Ms. Sherrill in the same publication, two days later:
Way in the future, when she's old and probably legendary, Hillary Clinton wants to be able to look back and feel she led "an integrated life," she says, sitting in her West Wing office last week. She wants to have felt unified, whole. She wants her emotional life and physical life, her spiritual life and political life all to fit together, in sync, an orchestra sitting down to play the same song.
