The Private Measure of Self: A Crucial Part of Ted Kennedy's Legacy

We are all of us a composite of conflicts from which may emerge a sense of who we truly are - a center of self. Some of us never find this place, leading lives of "quiet desperation" forever pushed and pulled.

Senator Kennedy found his center and used it to better our lives. He was not perfect. As his son Ted lovingly said it hadn't always been easy "to live with this name." Yet this same controversial man rose to so many occasions in a family more than peppered with tragedy, more than gifted, and in a country with so much to offer peopled with many willing to lessen its greatness. He was there to stand strong for both.

As we watch this family embedded deep within the psyche of the American experience, the lesson Senator Kennedy conveyed by much of his life and in death is that each of us can find within ourselves a marvelous strength. We can persevere even facing what may at first seem more than can be borne.

You don't have to be a lover of history as Kennedy was to learn, as he did, that your own history is worth study. To not know it is to assure repetition of its less admirable parts. To know it, truly, is to have within your grasp the ability to draw and build upon its impressive moments.

Ted Kennedy came to know himself. He angered many but he also left those with mental illness, disabilities, and struggling with so many other challenges clearer pathways around otherwise formidable obstacles. He left all of us a blueprint for living with harsh events thrust upon us as well as struggles of principle and practice raging within.

The public measure of ourselves so often seems the defining one, and yet, as we grow to know ourselves, it is the private measure, how we treat those we love, those who at times despise us and those we hardly know, that is ultimately the more telling. This is a lesson Ted Kennedy leaves. It is an invaluable one.

Comments

[mjc]

It seems to me that the Kennedys were always taking the measure of themselves...as a family and as individuals, and they still are. That is not a bad character goal for any of them. Public service was/is such a strong theme of this family. That is what is lacking in today's leaders. That particular theme will be sorely missing in the future. Gaining power isn't the same as public service.

[MerhabaAbi]

Hi Ms. Reardon,

I believe you are correct when stating that Senator Kennedy had found his center. He truly was the Lion of the Senate for the last three decades. He unapologetically stood his ground to improve America and bring justice to the masses through his works on civil rights, gender equality law and collective bargaining. I like the way you describe him as a student of his own history, that's a poignant lesson for us all to remember continually. Thank you for pointing out the truth and necessity of that seemingly simple task. I've learned from many sources but my own mistakes resonate loudly and guide me in my decisions.

Respectfully,
little brother

[jimpager]

Ms. Reardon,

I'm intrigued by your notion of Teddy's "Center of Self." I think this is
important...to himself, the Kennedy family, to Democrats, to America.

After the shattering assassinations, the plane crash, Chapaquidick,
and the failed campaign against Carter, Teddy redefined himself and
went on to the fruition of the infamous "Kennedy legacy."

To the Kennedy family, he became the Center. With the help of Vicky,
Teddy appeared to reconstitute himself personally and was able to
lead the family, and proudly represent the "Kennedy Legacy" until his
death.

To Democrats, I don't believe he was the Left. I believe he became
the Center. President Obama called Teddy, "The Soul of the Democratic
Party," in his Euology. In a party that often seems founded on shifting
tectonics, this loss may be the most severe.

To America, Democracies cannot succeed without at least two
viable parties. Season-in season-out, Kennedy was always there,
always in the fight, and always on the side of the angels on every
issue. This served to insure the continuity of the Democratic Party
despite the onslaught of Reagan, the insurrection of Newt's
"Contract on America," and the more recent paranoid fanaticism of
Bush's Neo-Cons. Kennedy stood his ground. He guaranteed the
continuity of Democrats, and recent elections suggest the new Center
of America may be much closer to Kennedy than to Cheny/Bush.

Ted Kennedy's Center has, for a brief shining moment at least,
become America's Center.

[pm247]

>>You don't have to be a lover of history as Kennedy was to learn, as he did, that your own history is worth study. To not know it is to assure repetition of its less admirable parts

[IssuesInFocus]

Your reference to understand­ing/studyi­ng history, well said.
Kennedy was a light into the shadows that still looms to obscure how far we have come as a nation. As President Obama said earlier today at Ted's funeral " May he rest in eternal peace. When I think of him-- I think 'Measure of a Man," bold, uncompromising and a stalwart for the poor. We will never see his like again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GisOAYMONzY