"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame,
a little less than his share of the credit."~ Arnold Glasow

I saw a funny quote by Jay Leno the other day, "If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates."  I laughed out loud when I read that.  We have yet another presidential election before us and so many voters are still undecided ... but this country is not at all what it was when I was a child.

 

The first president I really remember was Dwight Eisenhower.  We all looked up to him and respected him so much.  Ike was a West Point graduate, Supreme Commander of NATO, and the country was proud to say, "I Like Ike."  Then came Jack Kennedy ... oh, how the youth of America loved him!  I recall exactly where I was on the day he died and heard the announcement, "The president is dead," reverberating across campus.  In spite of his philandering (which we didn't know much about at the time), I still looked up to the President.  And no one was a more elegant and polished First Lady than Jackie Kennedy. 

 

There have been good and bad presidents from both political parties but I am disappointed that the respect I once had for the presidency is long gone.  These days the President finds it natural to hang out with celebrities and appear on TV talk shows.  But the First Lady,  well, I was a little taken aback when she competed in a race on TV against Jimmy Fallon and in a push-ups contest with Ellen DeGeneres, but even more surprised when she was interviewed last week on national TV with her barefeet on the couch.  She was talking about a discussion with her daughter and said, "What would we be if me and Dad did that?"  Me and Dad????  Sorry, I was an English major in college and that jumped out at me.  I would have expected her to say, "if Dad and I did that."  You can watch it here:  http://www.ivillage.com/guest-editor-michelle-obama-active-not-overscheduled-kids/1-h-481792?category_id=6331.  Am I too old school?  I welcome your comments. ♥

 

 

In case you are wondering, yes, today's photo is the oldest wooden schoolhouse in St. Augustine, Florida.   I have been feeling a little nostalgic lately about the past.  Maybe it's because I recently read  Stephen King's latest novel, 11/22/63.  I am not a Stephen King fan and I have only read one of his previous horror stories, but I loved this book.  After the first few chapters, I couldn't put it down and read the entire 849 pages in a little over a week.  It was that good.  The book involves a time traveler, Jake Epping, a high school English teacher,  emerging from a 2011 rabbit hole that leads to a particular day in 1958.  Jake's ultimate goal is to prevent Jack Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963.  By thwarting Kennedy's death, he can also save Bobby Kennedy, "save Martin Luther King, stop the race riots, stop Vietnam."  Jake becomes a neighbor of Lee Harvey Oswald and, through surveillance, stalks Oswald's every move. 

The New York Times review of 11/22/63 calls it "a meditation on memory, love, loss, free will and necessity . . . Can history be changed, or does it snap back on itself like a rubber band?   Does love conquer all?"  I highly recommend this book but, if you choose not to read it, I feel confident it will eventually be made into a movie -- a long one. ♥