Peggy Noonan has a special ability to recognise the woo-woo in others. We might say that it takes one to know one.
Reagan was not mystical in a sacramental sense, but he had some woo-woo in him — a sense that a higher power was at work and operative and intervening in his life and history. John Paul thought the hand of the Blessed Mother deflected the bullet that was to kill him away from arteries and nerve clusters. Reagan felt God and his angels saved his life when he was shot. What extraordinary men.
One day, forty years ago, Billy Curran and I were riding our bikes home from school. I was turned sideways talking to Billy when I ran into a parked Ford Falcon and got my front bike tire stuck beneath its rear bumper (and got my face stuck on the hot trunk of the Ford, but that's another story). The bike seemed stuck, but I kicked it until the tire became unstuck. I'm sure the baby Jesus was watching over my bike tire that day. Because of my infantile illusions, I too must have been an extraordinary man in the forth grade.
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