Does this man practice Reiki — or does it just seem that way?

(Photo courtesy BarackObama.com)

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama, not only for winning the election but for being named this week's Celeb-Reiki. 

He's definitely a celebrity, but -- you may ask -- what does the soon-to-be 44th President of the United States have to do with Reiki?

If we were to practice the sort of spurious journalism that was all too common during the marathon presidential campaign, we might put it this way: Obama was born in Hawaii. So was Hawayo Takata, the person who brought Reiki to the world outside Japan. And some of the years that Obama lived in Hawaii overlap with some of the years that Takata lived in Hawaii. So there's a connection, right? They might have even passed each other on the street, or the highway. They might have shared an elevator at some point, and it's even remotely possible that they might have met each other. If not that, then it's possible that Takata might have met Obama's mother, or his grandparents, all of whom lived in Hawaii. And then, having brought up that tenuous possible connection, we would take the suggestion to the cable news networks, where the talking heads would yammer on and on about the question of a possible Obama/Takata connection. "Some say Obama knew Takata," one of the TV pundits might say. "Others say there's no evidence of that. But what's the REAL story?" And of course, there would be photos of both Obama and Takata next to each other on the screen behind the "reporter" doing the speculation.

We could do that, but we won't. The world has had quite enough of that kind of pseudo-reporting.

We could also say that since there once was a web site called sendobamareiki.com, someone might have run across that site and followed the suggestion to send Reiki to Obama.

But we're not going to do that, either.

Instead, our speculation about a possible Obama-Reiki connection is simply this: whether or not President-elect Obama has ever even heard of Reiki or the Reiki precepts, he seems to practice them. From everything we saw during the nearly two years of his presidential campaign, he keeps his attention focused on the here and now. He doesn't indulge in either anger or worry, although he's certainly had plenty of provocation. He's humble, and grateful: Within an hour after the news networks called the election in his favor, he told a crowd of supporters that the victory didn't belong to him: "It belongs to you," he said. From all appearances, he seems honest, hard-working, and compassionate. 

More circumstantial evidence: Since the election, many pundits have been saying that Obama will be a healer, helping the nation and the world repair the breaks and bruises of the past eight years. And his election certainly brought about an energy shift to a more positive level, within our borders as well as without. 

None of that is even remotely enough evidence to make a case that Obama practices Reiki, of course. But it is enough of a connection to make him a Celeb-Reiki.

Disclaimer: Another thing that Reiki and Obama have in common is that neither is a substitute for professional medical care. But at least Obama seems likely to make that medical care available to more people who need it.