The camera established the scene from a respected distance across the street. Rain drops are on the lenses, church bell ringing and dark suits filing in behind the casket. The scene slowly unfolds to reveal an American royalty in grief. This brought to mind Princess Diana who
advocated land-mine-free zone. Elton John’s Candle in the Wind.
There in Boston, we heard Yo Yo Ma in Bach # 6.
Teddy’s last wish was a case in “succession planning”.
And Central Casting couldn’t have done it better: from McCain back from Hanoi, to Kerry back from VN to turn anti-war,
and Ted Kennedy who went out to the Mall to sit with him his long hair friends in the tent (by the way, John Kerry wore army shirt long before CK and other designers caught on with the trend), two controversial X-Presidents who did not serve in VN, a young President from Hawaii, and Jesse Jackson who sums it all up in his Rainbow Coalition.
Where were you when …….?
America and the world finally downloads an update version on Kennedy 3.0: 1963, 1968 and 2009. Idealism turned pragmatism lasts you longer. One can do a lot in a 50-year span :
A- Do nothing, and put everything in a CD, betting on interest over inflation
B- Wreck your inheritance in one form or another (there is a whole code of law one can choose from )
C- Live up to an ideal, and live it out in an imperfect world.
Our man chose C.
Despite his immobility through the whole service, his voice is still heard today.
In fact, if my instinct is right, he had already managed to “succession plan” his agenda and aspiration.
He who knows history tends not to repeat it. Here in Palm Beach people also remember Uncle Ted, who looked out for his nephew. You could only sympathize, until you experienced some frailty of your own, can you then empathize.
On TV and online, million of viewers (w/out commercial interruption) got a glimpse of a new Big Chill today.
Uninvited, yet ushered into the Basilica, the intersect of the world above and the world below, we turn from being spectators to actors in asking ourselves: A, B or C? Some of us have more time than others to ponder the answer.
Thang Nguyen 555 