The Defining Moment

Just got this book in the mail yesterday., FDR’S Hundred Days And The Triumph Of Hope. So happy to think about a better hundred days, constructive, finding ways to make hopeful lives for more people, in tough times, decades on. Underscore Social Security. The New Deal. And in our time, the Living New Deal and the Green New Deal.

Right away YouTubed FDR’S First Inauguration (fear itself speech…might be needed in these days when we must have courage) and his Fala speech. Guy could deliver so perfectly. (And my first dog was named Fala. It was the instant choice).

Then the Fireside Chats. Inspired much of a nation.

When I still was in elementary school, I rode my bike to the public library. There was a shelf of biographies written for my age and I got hooked on FDR, right then and there.

Years later, I was working as a professor in New York and my first road trip was down Route 9 to Hyde Park, FDR’S home on the Hudson River. That view is breathtaking. And walking those floors. I could not stop thinking “Im walking through history.”

I took my son to Bastrop State Park (Texas) when he was little. It’s a dream day trip. Wandering through the forest then soaking in that oval pool. Later my parents took him to stay at one of the cabins there, next to the pond. Genius idea, the Civilian Conservation Corps. Young men building lasting things, earning income, and sending some back home.. FDR’S idea and he actually did it.

A few years ago went with some nice German visitors to Palmetto State Park (Texas).. It’s like paradise. There’s a pavilion there and just, me rambling, said that it probably was built by the CCC. They just didn’t know the history. But a good walk.

Took them to the glorious Pedernales Falls (probably not FDR’S) but still, crossing the rocks, floating in the river, picnic lunch. Perfect summer day.

Now Eleanor. She had a pretty mighty intellect and social conscience. I had the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which she wrote, still relevant, or maybe especially relevant now, taped to my wall. Her book, You Learn By Living, on my night table, with Marcus Aurelius and Thich Nhat Hanh.

A little like going to Lincoln’s house in Springfield. Which when I was younger, family did. The view not as awesome as the Hudson right outside. But solid Midwest. And a towering President.