Review: Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

Over the last few months, I have been reading quite a bit about the life and times of Theodore Roosevelt, and I recently finished reading Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. The book is the third part of a trilogy about the former President. The first book is The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and the second is Theodore Rex. Each one of these books uncovers aspects of what this great American accomplished that I find utterly inspiring personally.

This book starts off immediately after Roosevelt has left the Presidency. This is the period of his life when he delivers his famed Man in the Arena speech at Sorbonne in France, and he continues to play on a global stage. During this time, Roosevelt continues to lead a life of adventure, and in all probability lives his life as one of the most globally popular people on the planet. In this era of his life, he lives as a naturalist and explorer of Africa and the Amazon. He represents the US in various arenas, and he makes a solid run to establish a viable third party in American politics, the Progressive or Bull-Moose Party. 

Roosevelt, although his health began to deteriorate, never seemed to cease working hard. At one point, he comments that he had promised himself that he would continue working to the hilt until he was sixty and he had done it. Although he never re-ascended to the Presidency, he continued to live his life in such a way as to influence public opinion and global affairs. Reading Morris's account, one gets the feeling that the only thing that could really stop Roosevelt from moving forward with strength was his own death, and Morris tells Roosevelt's story right up to his very last words.

There is so much to say about this man's life, and Edmund Morris tells it in a way that gives a glimpse into the personal care and pride of a father for his sons as they go to serve in the first World War, as well as the tenacity and strength of this statesman in his fifties when a man attempts to assassinate him. Roosevelt gets shot as he prepares to give a campaign speech in 1912, and pulls the blood-soaked speech out of his pocket and continues delivering as his clothes become stained with blood. He remarked, "You see, it takes more than one bullet to kill a bull-moose." He gave a nearly one hour speech and then was rushed to the hospital and he survived, although he did not gain the Presidency again.

Theodore Roosevelt is one of the most engaging and enigmatic world leaders of the last century, and Edmund Morris does an incredible job telling his story. I highly recommend Colonel Roosevelt to anyone who wants to learn more about the life and influence, after the Presidency, of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, after his Presidency, continued to live life on an even bigger stage. May each one of us aspire to live our lives as fully as we can, and may we seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.

Review: Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

As mentioned in a previous post, over the last few months I have been exploring the life and times of Theodore Roosevelt, and it has been a fascinating journey. Pulitzer Prize award winner Edmund Morris wrote Theodore Rex as the second part of the trilogy he composed telling the story of the life of the former President of the United States.

Theodore Rex picks up where The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt ends. President William McKinley has just been assassinated, and Roosevelt is now the President of the United States. Just as I felt when I was reading the first part of the trilogy, I am utterly amazed at what a deeply principled person Roosevelt was, and just how progressive he was. During a time when "Big Business" seemed to be dominating much of the landscape of America, Roosevelt stood for a fair wage for Americans. He threatened intervention and takeover with the military when one particular industry was threatening the lives of all-Americans through its greed. His activities garnered him the label of "Socialist" by his enemies.

He was definitely incredibly progressive for his time, and based on Morris' account, I wonder what today's media would do with a President like TR. He was a radical reformer, and he is the first President to dine with an African American in the White House. He commenced massive efforts to conserve natural resources and wilderness areas. He built up the US military for the sake of national security, and had a keen awareness of global developments. And he regularly wrestled, grappled, and fought people at the White House in order to stay in good physical condition. In much the same vein, he saw himself wrestling and grappling for the cause of right.

If you have an opportunity, I highly recommend reading about Roosevelt, and to learn about his Presidency, Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris is a great place to start. Roosevelt took his role as President extremely seriously, and his life is an example to each of us of the greed need our world has for each one of us to live our lives to the fullest and to work toward making a difference where we are.

Review: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

I've never been a person to dive into biographies about former Presidents, but the more stories I've heard about Theodore Roosevelt, the more intrigued I have become. As to be expected there are quite a few biographies and histories written about former and current Presidents, but Edmund Morris' account stood apart as it won the Pulitzer Prize, and subsequently led to Morris being invited to write a biography of then President Ronald Reagan. The book is nearly 800 pages long and has an additional list of 100s of endnotes at the back. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt only covers the period from birth to the moment of William McKinley's Assassination, but wow is it thoroughly engaging!

I only knew a small amount about President Roosevelt as I began reading the book. I knew of his policy and perspectives on native people, I knew of his love for the outdoors, and I knew his "Man in the Arena" speech because it is one of my friend Jake's favorites, and a challenge he often offers to others when he is speaking about Nuru. But, there is so much depth to this former President beyond those wave tops. 

In his path to the Presidency, he had already led a life that was more robust and full than that of many. He was a naturalist, scientist, and prolific writers with hundreds of thousands of pages of written text composed over the course of his lifetime. He was a descendant of some of the earliest Dutch settlers of New York City, and he also was a rancher who followed the call into the West. Beyond these accolades he also became the commissioner of police of New York City, and used that position to fight corruption in the police department and in politics in general. He worked exhaustingly for the cause of the good and the right, and although he was born into an incredibly wealthy family, his exploits to place checks against powerful interests won him the popularity of the masses. 

Beyond the many early exploits of the former President, Morris also comments on Roosevelt's fragility and his overcoming spirit. There's a conversation between father and son in the early chapters of the book where Roosevelt's father tells him "You have the mind, but not the body. You must make your body." and the younger Roosevelt responds, "I must make my body." It was recommended when Roosevelt was young that he not overexert himself because of his weak body he might be putting himself at risk. Roosevelt was an overcomer, and his example stands as a reminder to each and every one of us, that although the road may be long and difficult, we can overcome our circumstances as well. We may not become a future President, but we and those who are around us will benefit most from each of us living the most robust version of our life we can possibly live. 

I

 highly recommend The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt for anyone looking to learn more about this engaging former President. Morris is an award winning writer, and this is the book that really launched him. Roosevelt as a human being nudges each of us to aspire to be a productive citizen and member of society, and those nudges are able to be seen as a challenge embodied by the challenger as one reads this book. 

Reflection: My Wife's Surfing Adventure

Last January, while we were in California for the Semper Fi Bowl and Nuru Summit, Jamie was able to really make the most of the time to plan, to relax, and to learn a new skill—surfing. I wasn't present for it so all I have are the photos and the memory of my wife looking super relaxed and chill after a full day of catching waves. 

But, before she went surfing, she did a six mile hike from our hotel to the ocean, and then rented a bicycle to go for a little 15 mile ride up and down the coast. In case you didn’t know it, my wife is amazing, and not just because she’s an incredibly fit athlete who inspires me daily to be a better husband and human being. She also has one of the most carefree and compassionate outlooks on life of anyone I know; I wake up daily with a sense of gratitude that she is in my life.

She lives life to the fullest every day, and it was no surprise to me that she took advantage of the opportunity to learn to surf while she was so near great waves. She had a couple of other friends join her for the surf lesson too--every adventure is more exciting with friends!

Many people have a hard time either with catching the wave, paddling into the wave, or with standing up, but not Jamie. She was a natural. And as a result, I anticipate some more surfing fun in our future. Special thanks to Ana Rahlves, Anne Emerson Leak, and Jesse Fleisher for the roles y'all played in this little adventure!

Reflection: Nuru Summit 2015

One of my favorite experiences of any given year since we started talking about Nuru in 2007 has been the Annual Nuru Summit. In 2007 and 2008, the ‘summit’ was less official and was more of an informal gathering at my friend John Hancox’ house in Morgantown WV. Over the years, the summit has become the one time each year when all of Nuru’s staff have gathered together in one location—typically a location in California, and most of the time in Orange County.

Last year, we gathered for four days in Huntington Beach, CA and talked in detail about some of the challenges and highlights of the past year, as well as the path ahead for what we are striving to accomplish in 2015. I love the philosophy that our team has with regard to planning as well as with regard to assessing our activities for the sake of continuous improvement, but that was not the highlight for me. Nor was the highlight seeing my friends at Nuru who have been pushing forward in this fight. Those are both great things, but not my high point.

My highlight for last year’s summit was a renewed focus on our ‘why.’ Sometimes, no matter what our vocation, we can get caught up in the ‘what’ or the ‘how’ of what we are doing. And we need to be aware of those things—if we don’t it becomes easy to go off mission, or to undermine our values. But, ‘why’ is the thing that gets us up each morning, and helps each one of us keep going.

The week started off with a teary-eyed Jake sharing his why after sharing his sadness over the loss of a visionary Kenyan leader, PhilipMohochi, earlier in 2014. Throughout the week, individuals shared their unscripted why as they shared other updates for their program and for Nuru as an organization. Without a why, I think it would be hard for folks to keep going.

For me, I could talk at length about my why, but in short form, I believe my why comes from my faith, which has set ablaze in me a desire to care for other people well; to seek justice, do mercy, and walk humbly with my Creator. In an even shorter form for me it comes down to this—People matter. Every. Person. Matters. And so I personally keep pushing forward with this mission to give people meaningful choices.

What about you? What is your why? What inspires you to keep pressing forward with supporting and furthering Nuru’s work? What keeps you on mission in your life? What is your why? If you have not considered it, carve out some time for reflection and keep that why in front of you. When times are tough, it is easy to want to throw in the towel, but if you know your why, you will be able to resist ringing the bell or giving up.

Keep pressing—the world needs you to show up and stay on mission!

Kid President Pep Talk and Back Story

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine posted a link to the video above on his Facebook profile. With it, he included a statement about it being a long week, and that he hoped that if others had experienced a long week that this little “Pep Talk” might encourage folks to keep going.

So I watched it. I laughed. And I was reminded that the road less traveled hurts. I was reminded “'Don’t Stop Believin’ Unless Your Dream Is Stupid”~Journey as quoted by Kid President. I was reminded that there is something wonderful about stopping to dance amid what can feel like overwhelming circumstances.

I was tempted to write a post around the inspiration I found in watching Kid President’s Pep Talk, and then, when he and his brother-in-law released this video telling his back story, it inspired me further.

Rather than writing a long post, I simply pray that we may find the discipline and the courage to keep pushing, keep dancing, and keep bringing awesomeness into the world. Boring is easy. Let’s not be boring, but let’s change the world together!

It Is Written On The Tea Bag, The Yogi Tea Bag

Over the last couple of years, Jamie and I have become fans of drinking tea, and in late 2011, made the discovery (thanks to an incredible deal at Kroger) of Yogi Tea. This company has fun and inspirational sayings on its tea bags, and the teas that we have tried have been pretty delicious as well.

The photo above, was taken of the note on a bag of tea I opened last spring. I took a photo of it because I felt like it was one of the best quotes I had seen written on the bag, and addressed much of how I believe we should strive to live.

Travel Light--This has multiple meanings for me. Being on the road a good bit in recent years, I've learned to travel without ever checking bags (even during a two week trip to Kenya and the Nederlands). Separately, we regularly go through clothes and other items we have amassed and redistribute it. And often, we work to slow the accrual of things by choosing not to buy. Traveling light, helps keep our life a little more simple, and simplicity is something I believe we could all use more of today.

Live Light--To me, this one is just an encouragement to let go of anything that could weigh me down. Life is too short to carry baggage from the past through it. I guess this is sort of like traveling light, but I think of it more as not allowing ourselves to be weighed down and encumbered. In the words of Jesus, "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Living light for us involves taking Jesus easy yoke and light burden.

Spread The Light--Again, multiple meanings for this one. I think about this as doing things like serving others, sharing in joy, laughter, and love, and even mourning together with others. As often as we can make a practice of loving God and neighbor well, we spread the light. Also, the organization I work for, Nuru, is a kiswahili word that means light. I love to share Nuru's story with others and thus "spread nuru," and I love seeing others do the same.

Be The Light--Going back to the word Nuru, we encourage our supporters to "Be Nuru" by getting involved with our work and helping to fight extreme poverty. I also think this phrase has something to do with making the choice to care for others, influence others positively, and working to be a light spot in the days and lives of all who we encounter as we journey through life.

What about you? Do you have any words of inspiration that help encourage you to be the best version of yourself you can be? May we all strive to travel light, live light, spread the light, and be the light.