I was moved by Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin, acclaimed presidential historian, winning writer, political analyst, Harvard professor and most of all, Mom to 3 sons. A bit of her 1998 commencement address at the Dartmouth College was featured by Queena Lee-Chua along with the memorable speeches of Kofi Annan and Nobel-prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman in her column Eureka. I love Kofi (who doesn't?) but right now I wish to know more about Goodwin, an extraordinary woman and her choice.
Upon withnessing the mighty life of success of Pres. Lyndon Johnson, Goodwin said: "On the surface, he should have everything....and yet the man I saw in his retirement has spend many years in pursuit of work, power and individual success that he had absolutely no psychic or emotional resources left to commit himself to anything once the presidency was gone."
She also noted in her speech a sad conversation she had with Pres. Johnson before he died when he said that he was watching the American people forget him as they were absorbed with the new president...forgetting even the great civil laws he passed. He began to think that his quest for immortality had been in vain, that perhaps he would have been better off focusing his time and attention on his wife and children. Goodwin continued in her speech that, "Despite all the money and power he was alone when he died, his ultimate terror realized."
Having witnessed Pres. Johnson's late realization in life, Goodwin gave up her teaching career in Harvard and pursued motherhood fulltime. She reoreinted her life, weighing less on work and ambition but more on raising a family. Moreover, it took her 10 years to come up with her 2nd book and this is what she got to say: I'd like to think it made no difference to the world how long it took, but it mattered to my kids when they are young. It all goes so quickly....But the point is, even if some opportunities were lost by the choices made when the children were little, there's plenty of time now to move in new directions. It was just a matter of trusting in the choices that were made."
I found Goodwin's words enlightening and her life a living example of her wisdom and the things she believes in, it seem to shed light to a "situation" that I have been contemplating for a long time already. I have always known the answers to my questions but I simply lack the courage to take the reins and move towards the direction of my liberation, from a life of mediocrity and a life filled with giving in to the expectations of others. I feel blessed for there is still time to live my life the way I see fit living it.
