The second season of The West Wing is one of the finest seasons of television drama. Period.
I’ll focus on my favorite episode, the season finale of ‘Two Cathedrals’. During the previous episode, we learn that the well-loved secretary of the President was killed by a drunk driver while she was driving her first new car home. She has known the President since his school days and has worked for him for quite a long time.
The President has MS and had lied about it. He never told anyone. Only 20 or so people know.
So today, the day of the episode, the White House had planned on announcing to the American public that the President has MS and due to the timing of the death, it is also the day of the funeral.
The President is in a personal crisis. A beloved friend is dead. He reflects upon all that has not gone right over the past two years while discerning if he’ll run for a second term, despite the problems that will fall upon him for his failure to disclose his illness.
This is a very powerful episode that my review can’t do justice.
The President literally yells at God, in an argue to determine if it is his way or His way that he should follow. From my own discernment, I very much understand this desire.
He is faced with fear, with doubt, with not wanting to accept what he feels God is leading him to. It sounds like a discernment story I know quite well.
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