man who walks the hillsides in the sweet summer sun

 

I've been watching episodes of That Girl, the Sixties TV series, on You Tube.  (uploader:  FilmRise Television)  A factor in that show's success is the charisma of Marlo Thomas -- you just want to watch what she does, and listen to what she says...

        (Younger viewers may know Marlo Thomas more from Friends, as Rachel's mom.)

        I got to thinking about charisma.

        A good person can have charisma, and a bad person can have charisma.

        In a room full of talented actors and actresses, some may have charisma, and some may not have it.

What is charisma?  It's a kind of vibration originating, I think, in the person's spirit.  It draws other people.  We notice someone, and if they have charisma, we want to keep on watching them, whatever they are doing.  If they're talking, then we want to listen to what they have to say.

A You Tuber I listen to sometimes talked about meeting Bill Clinton at an event:  she said emphatically, "And let me tell you, he has got charisma, up one side and down the other!"

It was funny -- I had not heard that expression in a long time -- as soon as I heard her say, "charisma, up one" I knew she was going to follow with "side and down the other"...

U.S. presidents during my lifetime who had charisma:

Clinton

Kennedy

Nixon

Obama

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...and Donald Trump, for a lot of people.

I guess I felt Mr. Trump's charisma back in the '80s.  He got publicity.  He was written about.  I read a Vanity Fair article about him and Ivana and their New York City apartment with a waterfall in it, and an elevator that opened right into one of their rooms.

        Why was I reading that?

        Something about his presence -- even in the abstract -- caught my attention and made me curious to learn more.

I bought his book, The Art of the Deal -- in paperback -- and read it.  Or -- most of it, I think.

I remember lying out suntanning, and reading that, and arriving at the realization that his policy for "having success" was --

* get tax abatements

* get born

...although not in that order.

        I laid the book down on the grass next to my lawn chair.

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While a person with charisma can catch our attention, it doesn't mean they are a good person, or qualified for any particular job.  Jessica Flanigan, associate professor of leadership studies and philosophy, politics, economics, and law at the University of Richmond, has advised --

"No matter how appealing a candidate seems, it's always important to look carefully at the issues.  Voting on the basis of charm and charisma alone isn't worth the risk."

        [The article quoting this professor can be read at website Fast Company.  Title:  "It's time to stop talking about politicians' charisma."]

When I looked up quotations about charisma, amongst the "spiritual leadership" babble was a British essayist named Pico Iyer saying that "places have charisma, as much as people do."

        I kind of liked that.  Places.  I would tend to express it by saying that a place has a mystique.  But you could say charisma -- I can see that.

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