Learning from past presidents Doris Kearns Goodwin
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so indeed I have spent my life looking
into the lives of presidents who are no
longer alive
waking up with Abraham Lincoln in the
morning thinking of Franklin Roosevelt
when I went to bed at night but when I
try and think about what I’ve learned
about the meaning in life my mind keeps
wandering back to a seminar that I took
when I was a graduate student at Harvard
with the great psychologist Erik Erikson
he taught us that the richest and
fullest lives attempt to achieve an
inner balance between three realms work
love and play and that to pursue one
realm to the disregard of the others is
to open oneself to ultimate sadness in
older age where is to pursue all three
with equal dedication is to make
possible a life filled not only with
achievement but with serenity so since I
tell stories let me look back on the
lives of two of the presidents I’ve
studied to illustrate this point Abraham
Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson as for that
first sphere of work I think what
Abraham Lincoln’s life suggests is that
fierce ambition is a good thing he had a
huge ambition but it wasn’t simply for
office or power or celebrity or fame
what it was for is to accomplish
something worthy enough in life so that
he could make the world a little better
place for his having lived in it even as
a child it seemed Lincoln dreamed heroic
dreams he somehow had to escape that
hardscrabble farm from which he was born
no schooling was possible for him except
a few weeks here a few weeks there but
he read books in every spare moment he
could find it was said when he got a
copy of the King James Bible or Aesop’s
fables he was so excited he couldn’t
sleep he couldn’t eat the great poet
Emily Dickinson once said there is no
frigate like a book to take us lands
away how true for Lincoln though he
never would travel to Europe he went
with Shakespeare’s Kings to marry
England he went with Lord Byron’s poetry
to Spain and Portugal literature allowed
him to transcend his surroundings but
there were so many losses in his early
life that he was haunted by death his
mother died when he was only nine years
old his only sister Sara in childbirth a
few years later and his first love and
Rutledge at the age of 22
moreover when his mother Lay Dying she
did not hold out for him the hope that
they would meet in an after world she
simply said to him Abraham I’m going
away from you now and I shall never
return as a result he became obsessed
with the thought that when we die our
life is swept away dust to dust but only
as he grew older did he develop a
certain consolation from an ancient
Greek notion but followed by other
cultures as well that if you could
accomplish something worthy in your life
you could live on in the memory of
others your honor and your reputation
would outlive your earthly existence and
that worthy ambition became his lodestar
it carried him through the one
significant depression that he suffered
when he was in his early 30s three
things had combined to lay him low he
had broken his engagement with Mary Todd
not certain he was ready to marry her
but knowing how devastating it was to
her that he did that his one intimate
friend Joshua speed was leaving Illinois
to go back to Kentucky because speed’s
father had died and his political career
in the state legislature was on a
downward slide he was so depressed that
friends worried he was suicidal they
took all knives and razors and scissors
from his room and his great friend speed
went to his side and said Lincoln you
must rally or you will die he said that
I would just as soon die right now but
I’ve not yet done anything to make any
human being remember that I have lived
so fueled by that ambition he returned
to the state legislature he eventually
won a seat in Congress he then ran twice
for the Senate lost twice every one is
broken by life Ernest Hemingway once
said but some people are stronger in the
broken places so then he surprised the
nation with an upset victory for the
presidency over three far more
experienced far more educated far more
celebrated rivals and then when he won
the general election he stunned the
nation even more by appointing each of
these three rivals into his cabinet it
was an unprecedented act at the time
because everybody thought he look like a
figurehead compared to these people they
said why are you doing this Lincoln he
said look these are the strongest and
most able men in the country the country
is in peril I need them by my side but
perhaps my old friend Lyndon Johnson
might have put it in less noble fashion
better to have your enemies inside the
tent pissing
out than outside the tent pissing in but
it soon became clear that Abraham
Lincoln would emerge as the undisputed
captain of this unruly team for each of
them soon came to understand that he
possessed an unparalleled array of
emotional strains and political skills
that proved far more important than the
thinness of his external resume for one
thing he possessed an uncanny ability to
empathize with and to think about other
people’s point of view he repaired
injured feelings that might have
escalated into permanent hostility he
shared credit with Eze assumed
responsibility for the failure of his
subordinates constantly acknowledged his
errors and learned from his mistakes
these are the qualities we should be
looking for in our candidates in 2008 he
refused to be provoked he refused to be
provoked by petty grievances
he’d never submitted to jealousy or
brooded over perceived slights and he
expressed his unshakeable convictions in
everyday language in metaphors in
stories and with the beauty of language
almost as if the Shakespeare and the
poetry he had so loved as a child had
worked their way into his very soul in
1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation
was signed he brought his old friend
Joshua speed back to the White House and
remembered that conversation of decades
before when he was so sad and he
pointing to the proclamation said I
believe in this measure my fondest hopes
will be realized but as he was about to
put his signature on the proclamation
his own hand was numb and shaking
because he had shaken a thousand hands
that morning at a New Year’s reception
so he put the pen down he said if ever
my soul were in an act it is in this act
but if I sign with a shaking hand
posterity will say he hesitated so he
waited until he could take up the pen
and sign with a bold and clear hand but
even in his wildest dreams Lincoln could
never have imagined how far his
reputation would reach I was so thrilled
to find a interview with the great
Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in a New York
newspaper in the early 1900s and in it
Tolstoy told of a trip that he’d
recently made to a very remote area of
the Caucasus where there were only wild
barbarians who had never left this part
of Russia
knowing that Tolstoy was in their myths
they asked him to tell stories of the
great men of
so I said I told them about Napoleon and
Alexander the Great in Frederick great
and Julius Caesar and they loved it but
before I finished the chief of the
barbarians stood up and said but wait
you haven’t told us about the greatest
ruler of them all we want to hear about
that man who spoke with the voice of
thunder who laughed like the sunrise who
came from that place called America
which is so far from here that if a
young man should travel there he would
be an old man when he arrived tell us of
that man tell us of Abraham Lincoln he
was stunned II told him everything he
could about Lincoln and then in the
interview he said what made Lincoln so
great not as great a generalist Napoleon
not as great a statesman as Frederick
the Great but his greatness consisted
and historians would roundly agree in
the integrity of his character and the
moral fiber of his being so in the end
that powerful ambition that had carried
Lincoln through his bleak childhood had
been realized that ambition that had
allowed him to laborious Lee educate
himself by himself to go through those
string of political failures and the
darkest days of the war his story would
be told so as for that second sphere not
of work but of love encompassing family
friends and colleagues it too takes work
and commitment the Lyndon Johnson that I
saw in the last years of his life when I
helped him on his memoirs was a man who
had spent so many years in the pursuit
of work power and individual success
they need absolutely no psychic or
emotional resources left to get him
through the days once the presidency was
gone my relationship with him began on a
rather curious level I was selected as a
White House Fellow when I was 24 years
old we had a big dance at the White
House President Johnson did dance with
me that night not that peculiar they’re
only three women out of the 16 White
House fellows but he did whisper in my
ear that he wanted me to work directly
for him in the White House but it was
not to be that simple for in the months
leading up to my selection like many
young people I’d been active in the
anti-vietnam war movement and had
written an article against Lyndon
Johnson which unfortunately came out in
the New Republic two days after the
dance in the White House
the theme of the article was how to
remove Lyndon Johnson from power so I
was certain he would kick me out of the
program but instead surprising he said
I’ll bring her down here for a year if I
can’t win her over
no one can so I did end up working for
him in the White House eventually
accompanied him to his ranch to help him
on those memoirs never fully
understanding why he’d chosen me to
spend so many hours with I like to
believe it was because I was a good
listener he was a great storyteller
fabulous colorful anecdotal stories
there was a problem with these stories
however which I later discovered which
is that half of them weren’t true but
they were great on the last so I think
that part of his attraction for me was
that I loved listening to his tall tales
but I also worried that part of it was
that I was then a young woman and he had
somewhat of a minor league womanizing
reputation so I constantly chatted to
him about boyfriends even when I didn’t
have any at all everything was working
perfectly until one day he said when
he’s discussed our relationship sounded
very ominous when he took me nearby to
the lake conveniently called lake lyndon
baines johnson and there was wine and
cheese in a red check tablecloth all the
romantic trappings and he started out
Doris more than any other woman I have
ever known and my heart sank and then he
said you remind me of my mother
it was it was pretty embarrassing given
what was going on in my mind but I must
say the older I’ve gotten the more I
realized what an incredible privilege it
was to have spent so many hours with
this aging line of a man a victor in a
thousand contests three great civil
rights laws Medicare aid to education
and yet roundly defeated in the end by
the war in Vietnam and because he was so
sad and so vulnerable he opened up to me
in ways he never would have had I known
him at the height of his power sharing
his fears his sorrows and his worries
and I’d like to believe that that
privilege fired within me the drive to
understand the inner person behind the
public figure that I’ve tried to bring
to each of my books since then but it
also brought home to me the lessons
which Erik Erikson had tried to instill
in all of us about the importance of
finding balance in life for on the
surface Lyndon Johnson should have had
everything in the world to feel good
about in those last years in the sense
that he had been elected to the
presidency he had all the money he
needed to pursue any leisure activity he
wanted
he owned a spacious ranch in the
countryside a penthouse in the city
sailboats speedboats he had servants to
answer any whim and he had a family who
loved him deeply and yet years of
concentration solely on work and
individual success meant that in his
retirement he could find no solace in
family in recreation in sports or in
hobbies it was almost as if the hole in
his heart was so large that even the
love of a family without work could not
fill it as his spirit sagged his body
deteriorated until I believe he slowly
brought about his own death in those
last years he said he was so sad
watching the American people look toward
a new president and forgetting him he
spoke with immense sadness in his voice
saying maybe he should have spent more
time with his children and their
children in turn but it was too late
despite all that power all that wealth
he was alone when he finally died his
ultimate terror realized so as for that
third sphere of play which he never had
learned to enjoy I’ve learned over the
years that even this sphere requires a
commitment of time and energy enough so
that a hobby a sport a love of music or
art or literature or any form of
recreation can provide true pleasure
relaxation and replenishment so deep for
instance was Abraham Lincoln’s love of
Shakespeare that he made time to spend
more than a hundred nights in the
theatre even during those dark days of
the war he said when the lights went
down in a Shakespeare play came on for a
few precious hours he could imagine
himself back in Prince Hal’s time but an
even more important form of relaxation
for him that Lyndon Johnson never could
enjoy was a love of somehow humor and
feeling out what hilarious parts of life
can produce a sidelight to the sadness
he once said that he laughed so he did
not cry that a good story for him was
better than a drop of whiskey his
storytelling powers had first been
recognized when he was on the circuit in
Illinois the lawyers and the judges
would travel from one County Courthouse
to the other and when anyone was knowing
Lincoln was in town they would come from
miles around to listen to him tell
stories he would stand with his back
against a fire and entertain the crowd
for hours with his winding tales
and all these stories became part of his
memory bank so he could call on them
whenever he needed to and they’re not
quite what you might expect from our
marble monument one of his favorite
stories for example had to do with the
Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen and
his Lincoln told the story mr. Allen
went to Britain after the war and the
British people were still upset about
losing the revolution so they decided to
embarrass him a little bit by putting a
huge picture of General Washington in
the only outhouse where he’d have to
encounter it they figured he be upset
about the indignity of George Washington
being in an outhouse but he came out of
the outhouse not upset at all and so
they said we’ll teach you see George
Washington there oh yes he said
perfectly appropriate place for him what
do you mean they said well he said
there’s nothing to make an Englishman
faster than the sight of General
George so you can imagine if you are in
the middle of a tense cabinet meeting he
had hundreds of these stories you will
have to relax
so between his nightly treks to the
theatre his storytelling and his
extraordinary sense of humor and his
love of quoting Shakespeare and poetry
he found that form of play which carried
him through his days in my own life I
shall always be grateful for having
found a form of play in my irrational
love of baseball which allows me from
the beginning of spring training to the
end of the fall to have something to
occupy my mind and heart other than my
work it all began when I was only six
years old and my father taught me that
mysterious art of keeping score while
listening to baseball games so that when
he went to work in New York during the
day I could record for him the history
of that afternoon’s Brooklyn Dodger game
now when you’re only six years old and
your father comes home every single
night and listens to you as I now
realize that I in excruciating detail
recounted every single play of every
inning of the game that had just taken
place that afternoon but he made me feel
I was telling him a fabulous story they
think makes you think there’s something
magic about history to keep your
father’s attention in fact I’m convinced
I learned the narrative art from those
nightly sessions with my father because
at first I’d be so excited I would blurt
out the Dodgers won or the Dodgers lost
which took much of the drama of this
two-hour telling
so I finally learned you had to stell a
story from beginning to middle to end I
must say so fervent was my love of the
old Brooklyn Dodgers in those days that
I had to confess in my first confession
to sins that related to baseball the
first occurred because the Dodger
catcher Roy Campanella came to my
hometown of Rockville Center Long Island
just as it was in preparation for my
First Holy Communion and I was so
excited first person I’d ever see
outside of Ebbets Field but it so
happened he was speaking in a Protestant
Church when you were brought up as a
Catholic you think if you ever set foot
in a Protestant Church you’ll be struck
dead at the threshold so I went to my
father in tears what are we going to do
he said don’t worry he’s speaking at a
parish hall we’re sitting and folding
chairs he’s talking about sportsmanship
it’s not a sin but as I left that night
I was certain that somehow I traded the
life of my everlasting soul for this one
night with Roy Campanella and there were
no indulgences around that I could buy
so I had this sin on my soul when I went
to my first confession I told the priest
right away he said no problem it wasn’t
a religious service but then
unfortunately said and what else my
child and then came my seconds and I
tried to sandwich it in between talking
too much in church witching harm to
others being mean to my sisters and he
said to whom did you wish harm and I had
to say that I wish that various New York
Yankee players would break arms and legs
and ankles so that the RET so that the
Brooklyn Dodgers could win their first
World Series he said how often do you
make these horrible wishes and I had to
say every night when I said my prayers
so he said look I tell you something I
love the Brooklyn Dodgers as you do but
I promise you someday they will win
fairly and squarely do not need to wish
harm and others to make it happen oh yes
I said but luckily my first confession
to a baseball loving priest
well though my father died of a sudden
heart attack when I was still in my 20s
before I had gotten married and had my
three sons I have passed his memory as
well as his love of baseball onto my
boys though when the Dodgers abandoned
us to come to LA I lost faith in
baseball until I moved to Boston became
an irrational Red Sox fan and I must say
even now when I sit with my sons with
our season tickets I can sometimes close
my eyes against the Sun and imagine
myself a young girl once more in the
presence of my father watching the
players of my youth on the grassy fields
below Jackie Robinson Roy Campanella Pee
Wee Reese and
Schneider I must say there is magic in
these moments when I opened my eyes and
I see my son’s in the place where my
father once sat I feel an invisible
loyalty and love linking my sons to the
grandfather whose face they never had a
chance to see but whose heart and soul
they have come to know through all the
stories I have told which is why in the
end I shall always be grateful for this
curious love of history allowing me to
spend a lifetime looking back into the
past allowing me to learn from these
large figures about the struggle for
meaning for life allowing me to believe
that the private people we have loved
and lost in our families and the public
figures we have respected in our history
just as Abraham Lincoln wanted to
believe really can live on so long as we
pledge to tell and to retell the stories
of their lives thank you for letting me
be that storyteller today
[Applause]
[Applause]
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