I have lived through almost a third of the presidents we have had. Fourteen soon. That proves one of two things. Either we have had a lot of presidents in recent years or I have gotten quite old. Maybe both of these things are true. However, the list would be longer except that Franklin Roosevelt served three terms. Well, he really didn't serve out the third term for he died in office.
Charles Fake shared with me some info from the History Channel about presidents. One interesting item was that George Washington never shook hands while in office. He felt it beneath the dignity of the office. Now, we see those candidates shaking as many hands as they can reach. They figure each hand touched is a hand that will mark their names on the ballot. I guess that is so.
In a book "Presidential Anecdotes" by Paul Boller I found this story I will share with you. It is from the life of one of our more colorful presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, "At Sagamore Hill TR and naturalist William Beebe used to play a little game together. After an evening of talk they would go out on the lawn and search the skies until they found the faint spot of light mist behind the lower lefthand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. Then they would recite:
That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda
It is as large as our Milky Way
It is one of a hundred million galaxies.
It consists of one hundred billion suns,
each larger than our sun.
Then TR would grin at Beebe and say, "Now I think we are small enough! Let's go to bed!" "
It might be well for presidents and ourselves included to do the same thing. The trouble is that with so much artificial light around, finding the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda would be a very difficult chore. Maybe we can just pick up The Word and read:
"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise...when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, WHAT IS MAN than you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8
FEEL A little........smaller?
