man & nature # 221 ~ the dream endures

Johns Brook ~ Keene, NY • click to embiggenWhatever anyone might think about the Kennedys, there can be no disputing the fact that the family's story has played out like the greatest greek tragedy ever written. Rare, indeed, are families that have given more in the service of their country.

I am deeply saddened by the latest of those tragedies - the untimely loss of the voice of the Lion of the Senate. Amongst the many cruel twists of fate that Ted Kennedy had to endure, to be forced to sidelines as a spectator by a terminal condition during the national debate on healthcare - the cause of his life - is both cruelly ironic and ultimately tragic.

His voice as advocate for a wide range of causes, not to mention his ability to reach across the aisle to find and built common ground consensus, are exactly what the nation needs at his time. No one in government was (or is) better at articulating and illuminating a cause or a subject - not even the great speechifier, Barrack Obama - than Ted Kennedy.

On this sad occasion, 2 Irish blessings come to mind:

Teddy boy, may the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

And, may those who love you, love you; and those who don't love you, may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.

He will be missed.

Comments

[Walter McQuie]

Well said.