Bob Herbert: Look to the Rainbow

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/opinion/29herbert.html

When Jack Kennedy learned on a May morning in 1948 that his sister Kathleen, known as Kick, had been killed in a plane crash in Europe, he had been listening to recordings from the Broadway musical “Finian’s Rainbow.”

Jack, not yet 31, had already lost his older brother Joseph Jr., a Navy pilot whose plane exploded while on a bombing mission in World War II. It’s not easy to imagine the kind of resilience required to make your way through tragedies that, in the case of the Kennedys, often reached Shakespearean proportions. That resilience was one of the many things to admire about Jack and his siblings, fortunate in so many ways and damned in so many others.

It’s easy to miss the point about the Kennedys. The drama is always right there in your face to distract you. (Even now, with Ted barely gone, the struggle is under way over how his successor in the Senate is to be chosen, and whether Ted’s death will be a spur to — or the death knell for — health care reform.)

The most significant aspect of the Kennedys, more important than their reliably liberal politics or Ted’s long list of legislative accomplishments, was their ability to inspire. They offered the blessed gift of hope to millions, year after year and decade after decade. The key to understanding both the influence and the importance of the Kennedys was to pay close attention to what they said and what they tried to accomplish, and not let the depths of meaning in their words and aspirations become obscured by individual failings or shortcomings, the Kennedy Sturm und Drang.


(snip)
“Camelot” became a metaphor for the Kennedys in the aftermath of Jack’s assassination. But I always found “Finian’s Rainbow” to be a more appropriate touchstone for the family, especially the song “Look to the Rainbow,” with the moving lyric, “Follow the fellow who follows a dream.”

That was Ted’s message at Bobby’s funeral. The Kennedys counseled us for half a century to be optimistic and to strive harder, to find the resilience to overcome those inevitable moments of tragedy and desolation, and to move steadily toward our better selves, as individuals and as a nation.

Ted’s burial today is a perfect opportunity to remember the best that the family has given us.

... was their ability to inspire."

So two of the most inspirational had to die.

Everything that his three brothers wanted to do was cut short by violence. Only Ted escaped that fate, though barely. It's Senator Ted Kennedy who ultimately forged the Kennedy Legacy.

I have found myself tearing up these past few days, but my sadness is tempered quite a bit by knowing how very much Ted Kennedy managed to accomplish on this Earth before his time was up. All that and he got to witness Barack Obama's election and inauguration, which he helped to bring about. Not too shabby.

His sister Eunice deserves a mention as well, for making the most of her own long life. We can imagine that large family having the most joyous of reunions with Ted and Eunice arriving so soon together. I hope their one remaining sister is consoled by the immense clan that remains around her.

We have all been fortunate to have had the Kennedys in our time.

Hekate