Frederick Douglass : Prophet Of Freedom / David W. Blight

Blight’s biography of Frederick Douglass is comprehensive, scholarly, and it painstakingly unravels the true character of the man from the myth of his fame.  The life story of Douglass is an amazing one.  Born into slavery in 1818, as a child he was taught to read and write by a sympathetic owner’s wife.  This led him to become a voracious reader, and fanned the flame of rebellion in his soul.  In his early twenties, along with his wife, he made a daring escape to the North, where he soon became involved in the abolition movement.  Using his pen and his charisma as a public speaker, by 1846, he was famous across the country, helping to lead the unfolding campaign to end slavery in this country.  From then until his death in 1895, Douglass interacted with numerous presidents and political leaders, and wowed audiences across the country and overseas as well with his speeches which preached against discrimination and sought the betterment of Blacks by giving them the vote and respectability as American citizens.

Throughly covering the public, political and personal aspects of Douglass’ life, this biography leaves few stones unturned in the telling.  While the amount of detail presented makes it the definitive book about his life, it also leads to a good deal of repetitiveness.  But for anyone interested in the history of African Americans during the Nineteenth Century, there is much to learn in this study of a former slave who shook off his shackles to become one of the most recognized figures in this country by the end of his life.

Douglass certainly had his fair share of faults.  His bitter fights with other abolitionists often detracted from the battle against slavery.  Following the Civil War, Douglass feuded with women seeking to achieve the right to vote, believing it should be put off until after the Blacks in this country were given the rights they deserved.  He also remained tied to the Republican Party even after it ceased to push back against the South’s repression of Blacks in the second half of the century.  And he supported the imperialist aims of the United States during this time as well.  Douglass continued to believe that through hard work alone, Blacks would somehow win acceptance from the white ruling class in the South.

While these faults reveal Douglass to have his blind spots, he never stopped campaigning for a country where both races could live side by side in harmony.  Right up to the day he died, fueled by his strong Christian believes, he delivered hundreds of speeches each year, preaching and berating the powers that be, for positive change.  Even more impressive is the output of his writings, delivered in the form of essays, letters, and three separate autobiographies.  He created a whirlwind that kept the hopes of Blacks alive in the dark decades following the Civil War, when they were being lynched daily in the South for daring to stand up for equality.  Blight’s biography pays homage to an American who rose from slavery to become one of the most inspirational men not only during his lifetime, but for future generations as well. 

The Sea, The Sea / Iris Murdoch

Charles Arrowby has spent his life working as an actor, a playwright, and most famously, as a director.  But in the opening chapter of The Sea, The Sea, he has left the theater life behind and retired to a remote house on the English coast.  There, he begins to write his memoirs in which he outlines how he spends his days swimming in the sea, cooking simple meals, and exploring the house and land he has purchased.  In bits and pieces, he also begins to reflect on his childhood and on the women he was romantically involved with over the years.  Overall, he seems a content hermit thrilled to be far removed from the social hustle and bustle of London, believing himself finally free from the entanglements of the past.  

His peace of mind is shattered when in a nearby village he bumps into his first love as a teenager, a now sixty-something married woman who he believes is unhappily married to a dominating husband.  This reintroduction fans a flame of passion that he has long thought extinguished.  To complicate matters, the past soon comes knocking at his door in the form of former lovers and other hangers-on from his days as a famed director.  And what at first seemed a quiet meditation on life turns into an unfolding story that will include a kidnapping of sorts, an attempted murder, and Charles having to come to terms with his vanity, jealousy, and lack of compassion.

The Sea, The Sea is a story about a man caught up in self delusion, unable to see the selfishness of his own romantic ideals.  While all of this might sound rather bleak, the tone of the novel throughout is filled with black humor.  One of the people that comes back into life is his cousin James.  A military man and Buddhist who has spent his career in Tibet, James comes across as one of the most likable of all the characters in the book, and his presence adds a taste of spirituality to the story as well.  Murdoch won the Booker Prize for this work in 1978, and it is easy to understand why.  Throughout, the plot continually offers fresh surprises.  While at times it seems a bit over the top, Murdoch masterfully ties the threads of Charles’ life into a haunting portrait of a man coming to terms with his checkered past.

Perspective

Washing the breakfast dishes, from
the kitchen window
I see our neighbor’s cat stalk past.

Tracking its intent gaze, there among
the peonies I finally spy
a mouse cowering with stage fright.

Blood drawn by a misdirected blade,
a carton of eggs dropped,
how vexing my morning has been.

And if the slime of broken eggs is
not punishment enough,
I’m fuming after my wife’s rebuke.

True, I’m sympathetic for the mouse,
but torn, ready to vent
my frustration with the cat’s pounce.

And yet, perspective humbly reveals
another of life’s tragedies
to be just a fallen leaf, misidentified.

Ugly Cousins

What persists now are what we ruthlessly
tried to uproot all summer long,

unkempt and unruly still despite the frost,
they remain, a tenacious green.

Never tempted skyward, these ugly cousins
hug the ground for dear life,

knowing better than to chance their future
to the careless scattering of seeds.

Weed is the dismissive name given them,
but patience is their trump card,

while what we tenderly nurtured crumbles
and surrenders to redundancy.

Rooted firmly in the graveyard of desire,
snow blankets, but doesn’t erase,

for the last will also be the first revealed
to welcoming eyes come spring.

Leadership : In Turbulent Times / Doris Kearns Goodwin

In Goodwin’s latest tome, she looks back at how four presidents rose to the occasion when confronted with a challenge early in their presidencies.  The four individuals she focuses on are ones she has written about in earlier biographies.  The presidents she highlights here are Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson.  

The book is divided into four sections  The first describes what inspired their initial interest in public life.  Next, she spotlights an event that threatened to derail the political career of each before they could achieve their dreams of success. The third reveals how each man dealt with a major issue that would define their presidency. The final chapters address how each faced their approaching deaths once no longer in office.

While these four presidents differ in personality, all were fired with an ambition to make their mark by challenging the status quo.  For each, resilience played a key role in their later success.  More importantly, strong moral beliefs defined their time in office.  Their success resulted from being able to incorporate the advice of the people they surrounded themselves with once in office, while remaining true to their desire to sustain our country as a democracy.

In the turbulent times we are currently living through politically, Goodwin’s book provides an insight into how four presidents rose to the occasion to provide a path forward.  While each of them has faults in terms of leadership, all four persevered to ensure that America would live up to its own Constitution.  One can only wonder how today’s occupant of the White House will fare in comparison.

Marriage

A successful marriage
is not necessarily defined by its length.
Many an unhappy couple
remain side-by-side in adjoining graves.
But passion’s intensity
alone is never enough to declare victory.
Counselors will advise
conversation, shared interests, freshness.
What goes unmentioned
is to become comfortable with silence.
Those times spent apart
within arms’ reach with nothing to say.
A successful marriage
is finally defined by what isn’t spoken.
Two nuclear powers
choosing not to blow everything apart.
For the happily married,
a kindly bitten tongue speaks volumes.
Hovering over the button,
two hands are speechlessly enjoined.

Summer Fling

Never shy, sultry and hot blooded,
in youth’s blossoming
you seduced me out of my clothes.
Yet here in time’s
reckoning, you’ve lost your charm.
Even if still fruitful
hanging there on September’s vine,
overripe and clingy,
your preening seems vainglorious.
Things between us have
grown frosty now that I have made
eye contact with Autumn,
a brazen season promising warmth
beneath her covers.
Fully dressed, I will take your leave.