He Leadeth Me by Walter J. Ciszek, S.J.

Fr. Ciszek was a Jesuit priest who, in 1928 as a young man, answered Pope Pius XI’s call to train for the “Russian missions.”   Fr. Ciszek was imprisoned in Siberia for twenty-three years and returned to the United States in 1963.  He was an American from Shenandoah, Pennsylvania!  I had labored under the impression that he was Polish by birth, a European long accustomed to totalitarian oppression. 

The book is intense, concentrated, even ponderous at times.  First, there is the matter of just following the sequence of events--where Father Ciszek was and when, why he was imprisoned, solitary confinement, the interrogations, hunger, doubt, his transfer to a slave labor camp, physical suffering, facing and surviving a firing squad, “freedom” in Siberia and then his return to the United States.  Plenty to digest.

Then there is the theological and spiritual side with the lesson that Fr. Ciszek drives home over and over.  I took it to be this:  Thy will, Lord, not mine.  He recounts how he came to understand and accept his imprisonment.  He instructs us to be grateful and stalwart servants of the Lord, able always to bend to God’s will, never presuming we can go it alone.  Life isn’t casual.  People are not random physical bodies created to chase sunshine and  rainbows. Every hair of one’s head is accounted for.   Your life has meaning.   Go about figuring it out.

Joseph Gilmore and William Bradbury

Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine,

Nor ever murmur nor repine,

Content, whatever lot I see,

Since ‘tis my God that leadeth me!

 

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me:

His faithful foll’wer I would be,                              For by His hand He leadeth me.

 

Reading History No 5 Video

Late Summer Clouds

Here’s the link to my most recent video. I’m branching out a bit to topics other than reading history and I’ll also be having specially chosen guests! 

In the video I mention the author Elizabeth Janet Gray Vining. Besides retiring in my hometown of Kennett Saure, PA, Mrs. Vining was a very remarkable woman who wrote a book about her years as English tutor to the Crown Prince of Japan after WWII.  Here is my commentary on Mrs. Vining’s book.

All About Me! by Mel Brooks

Are you a Mel Brooks fan?  If you are, you’ll certainly enjoy this autobiography of Mel’s life in show business.  If you aren’t a fan, you’ll still enjoy this autobiography of Mel Brooks, nee Melvin Kaminsky, and his life in show business.   

Mel Brooks says he had nothing to do during the pandemic, so he wrote a book!  The publication date is 2021.  Mel, having been born in Brooklyn in 1926, must have been somewhere around 94 as this autobiography came together.  The writing style is conversational.  The text includes song lyrics, jokes, favorite routines and dialog sequences that Brooks includes to illustrate various points.  There are a lot of pictures.  The 451 pages are organized largely according to Brooks’s artistic endeavors so a chapter on writing for TV and Sid Caesar, a chapter on Carl Reiner and the album the 2,000 Year Old Man, a chapter on Get Smart (had no idea that was Mel Brooks!), The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Robin Hood, etc.

Mr. Brooks does not dwell either excessively or introspectively on his personal life but he does offer occasional insights about how an event affected him or how a person helped to shape him.  He gives a pretty good accounting of his childhood, his early adulthood, and he does write about meeting Anne Bancroft, their marriage and life together.  His first marriage is not mentioned at all, although he has pictures of and writes warmly about his children from that marriage.

I admit to seeing none of Mel Brooks’s movies from start to finish, only snippets here and there.  I don’t think I was old enough or savvy enough to appreciate Mel Brooks in his early years, but as a baby boomer much of the culture that he writes about, entertainment and otherwise, is very familiar.  Brooks says his humor isn’t Jewish humor it’s New York humor, but what is New York humor if it isn’t Jewish?  In any event, until 1968, I knew little of New York, and I don’t think I would have been attracted to his work even if I had known more.  After reading this book, my favorite Mel Brooks movie would certainly be Blazing Saddles--the race jokes, the acting, the concept, just hysterical. 

After the first 70 pages or so, Brooks concentrates on discussing his work rather than his life except as it relates to his work.  He goes into some detail about what is involved in making a movie, selecting a cast, how writers write solo and how they write in a group, what it’s like to be the director and what it's like to take instruction from a director.  Brooks writes about what makes comedy work and the joy he gets from hearing the laugh.  He has a fairly exhaustive chapter on the Broadway production of The Producers.  He covers the business side of making movies and shows in the chapters describing his own production company, Brooksfilms.  I liked the insider looks at the entertainment business, life in California, his attempt to have John Wayne play the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles, his friendships and professional relationships with Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder and Dom DeLuise among so many others.  

This book brings into focus Mel Brooks and his talent for doing just about everything—comedy writer, comedic vision, actor, screenplay-writer, songwriter, director, producer and did I leave anything out!  Mel Brooks frequently uses the adjective “Promethean” to describe others he’s worked with but I think the term could be applied to him as well.  Mel Brooks is a Promethean talent.  He’s intelligent, endlessly creative, articulate, analytical and funny. 

Brooks snuck a little bit of politics into the book.  When chosen for the Kennedy Center Honors in the earlier part of the 2000s, Brooks refused to accept the award from then-President George Bush.  He writes:  “I didn’t want to be honored by Bush because as a veteran I was very unhappy about Americans being sent to war in Iraq.”  Come on, Mel, just tell us you’re a Dem and be done with it.  A few years later in 2009 he accepted the same award from President Barack Obama.  

This book is not gossipy or fluffy.  Mel Brooks is a funny guy who is very serious about his comedy.  If you like reading about show business, comedy, Broadway or the creative process, Mel Brooks fan or not, it will be worth your while to read this book.  Democrat or not!

A Book about the Scots-Irish

Born Fighting  How the Scots-Irish Shaped America  by James Webb

Five groups immigrated to and made up the population of colonial North America prior to the 1830-40s.  They were the Puritans in New England, the Quakers in the Mid-Atlantic states and the Anglicans in the South.  African slaves were a fourth group that came to the colonies though they were not immigrants of their own free will.  The fifth group was the Scots-Irish who pushed west past the established towns and villages of colonial America and settled its then-frontier areas of western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia.  This book is about them.  (The American Indians were considered indigenous at the time of colonization though they, too, had migrated from foreign lands.) 

This book is part history, part personal memoir, part cultural history and part political commentary.  Its author is a man of seemingly limitless talents and energy.  Who knows James Webb?  No, not James E. Webb of telescope fame.  No, not Jimmy Webb who wrote Wichita Lineman and, no, not Jimmy Webb, East Village punk fashion icon. This is James Webb---novelist, journalist, filmmaker, professor, decorated Marine, Vietnam War veteran, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, former Secretary of the Navy (both during the Reagan years), former senator from Virginia and one-time Democrat candidate in the 2016 Presidential primary.  That James Webb! That James Webb, as you might guess, is himself a Scots-Irish.  He is justifiably proud of his roots and he writes with a zeal and passion fitting of a fightin’ Marine.  

Mr. Webb gives the reader several solid chapters on the provenance and history of the Scots-Irish going back to the indigenous Celtic tribes of Europe.  He then takes us from William Wallace (aka Braveheart) to Robert the Bruce to the monarchs of the 15^th and 16^th centuries and then the migrations of the Scots-Irish to the New World and their role in America’s history up to the present.  Other chapters deal with the legacy of the Scots-Irish in the United States, a legacy which pervades our military, our fighting spirit, our sense of individualism, our country music, our Protestant religions and our form of governance.  Among his many celebrations of his countrymen, Webb writes quite a paen to Andrew Jackson as representative of the Scots-Irish ethos.  

A portion of the book is devoted to Webb’s family history, his personal reflections and experiences moving through the post-Vietnam American culture.  His analysis of race relations and the scape-goat role that was unfairly foisted on Southern whites is particularly insightful.  His family memories veer slightly to the sentimental at times, but they save themselves by Webb’s level of detail and thoughtfulness that renders them genuinely from the heart.  

I ended up enjoying this book.  My original intent was to skim it and concentrate on the history chapters.  However, with no Scots-Irish heritage whatsoever, I could relate to much of the cultural history that Webb so accurately described.  The historical chapters, though a bit jumbly at times, were thorough and informative.  The book has no pictures except for the collage on the book jacket.  Hardly enough!  Photos of Mr. Webb wearing all his various hats would have added another dimension to the text as would have photos of the family members he described.  Generic photos of people and places discussed would have been helpful as well. 

I recommend this book and look forward to reading more of James Webb’s work.  Perhaps this Scots-Irishman extraordinaire will step onto the public stage once more in one of the many areas in which he excels. 

 

A Memoir by Barbara Bush

Barbara Pierce Bush (1925-2018) was a wife, mother, homemaker, and, as the cards were dealt, a distinguished First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993.  Engaged to George H. W. Bush during World War II and married at 19, she was a military bride for the first months of her marriage until the War ended.  Their first child, George W., was born while the couple was at Yale University as George H.W. completed his undergraduate degree. Then began the sometimes-wild ride that finally led to the White House. All this and the former First Lady wasn’t even a college graduate!  Once married, she never returned to Smith College.  Throughout her life, she declared family, faith and friends as her priorities.

Barbara Bush grew up in Rye, New York in what sounds like a normal middle-class family whose affluence and status may have increased as her father’s career progressed; he eventually became president of the McCall Corporation.   Besides some famous Pierce ancestors and her father’s friendship with Red Blaik, there was little about her upbringing that approached anything more than what would have been the customary privileges and social graces of a family who lived in a pleasant suburb of New York City in the 30s and 40s. 

Mrs. Bush seemed able to manage any challenge that came her way.  She could turn sows’ ears into silk purses, or, if not silk, at least prevail and get the job done.  As someone who accepted life as it was handed to her, Mrs. Bush was a realist.  She frequently and freely acknowledged her wonderful family, husband and children and her overall good fortune in life.  She was not unaware of who she was and how her life stacked up against others not so fortunate.  Though not one to anguish over the torments of her inner soul, she was capable of reflection and self-analysis and her writing in this memoir is warm, honest and very entertaining.

The book recounts in detail the early years of married life in Midland and then Houston, as H.W. built up his career in the oil industry. Adventures along the way were sometimes sad (as the sudden death of her mother in a car accident) and sometimes humorous (life in tiny apartments sharing bathrooms with other families), but there were always plenty of friends along the way and plenty of family support for her five children (largely from the Bush side). Events were also tragic; during these early years, Barbara and George Bush lost their second child, a daughter, Robin, to leukemia at the tender age of 4.  Mrs. Bush devotes a chapter to Robin though she is mentioned throughout the book.

When George Bush won a seat in the House of Representatives, the family moved to Washington, D.C. and from there to NYC for his job as Ambassador to the UN. Mr. Bush then served as Chair of the Republican National Committee during the Watergate years.   Next it was off to China as U.S. envoy during the Ford administration, back to D.C. for Mr. Bush’s time as Director of the CIA.  A solid eight years followed living in the nation’s capital as Vice President and Second Lady during the Reagan administration.  Then came the White House years, years that both George and Barbara Bush clearly treasured.   

As First Lady, indeed throughout H.W.’s political career, Barbara Bush was consistent and thoughtful about her public role.  Her reasoning was that the issues of the day were not hers to publicly pontificate upon; she had not been elected to office. As she put it, her priorities were her children and husband and went on to explain “Abortion pro or con, is not a priority for me.  ERA is not a priority for me, nor is gun control.  I leave that for those courageous enough to run for public office.  Educating a young girl early that she has a choice to wait before she has a relationship with a boy is a priority for me.”  She went on to list equality among all people and feeding and housing the poor as among her priorities.

The issue she took on as First Lady was literacy.  She traveled, gave speeches, visited schools and hospitals and promoted her cause with thoroughness.  She accompanied the president on endless trips. She was hostess, diplomat, friend to countless public figures, and I don’t think any two people could have had more friends in more places than George and Barbara Bush.  Nor did anyone keep a more intense pace of work, play, travel, golf, boating and family activities.

Barbara Bush follows the familiar pattern of public persons who recap their careers once out of the limelight.  As with most of these memoirs, the early chapters are the most engaging because they are the least formulaic. Not so in Mrs. Bush’s case.  Her memoir remains fresh and candid throughout. She describes what life was like as a congressional wife, as Second Lady of the land and everything in between.  Once in the White House she recounts, without the least rancor or regret, how her private life ceased to exist. She gives an insider narrative of her husband’s Inauguration Day.   She takes the reader into her White House office and daily routines.  She describes, with behind-the-scene details,  weekends at Walker’s Point and Camp David which might include children, grandchildren and dignitaries at the same time. 

She offers her opinions about any number of people, usually positive, though there was that little glitch with Geraldine Ferraro.  Neither, during the UN years in New York, did she have any kind words for Mayor John Lindsay.  Otherwise, it is all “a darling young woman,” “a lovely creature,” “the most wonderful friends, we love them.”  Given the international politics of the day, Mrs. Bush was frequently paired up with, among others, Raisa Gorbachev and Denis Thatcher. With Mrs. Gorbachev, Barbara Bush finally cuts through the “red” tape and comes to understand and have a fondness for her.  Of Denis Thatcher she says, he “…played it just right, in my eyes.  He was supportive of Margaret always, and yet had a life of his own.”  For both Bushes, their relationship with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada and his wife Mila extended well beyond the political.

Mrs. Bush writes about her family also, but without invading terribly personal spaces.  The death of little Robin has been mentioned.  Mrs. Bush seems to have had good relationships with her siblings. Jeb’s marriage to Columba was perhaps a bit of a surprise to the family and maybe took some special attention.  Son Marvin had rather severe health problems as an adult and Neil was raked over the coals and financially ruined by the S&L “scandal.”  Daughter Doro was divorced with two small children until meeting her current husband who was a welcome addition to the family. George W. had not yet run for governor of Texas and he and Laura were often not geographically close by especially during the Washington, D.C. years.  Barbara Bush remained very much a mother through the years. 

This book may not be for everyone, particularly those looking for a substantive discussion of issues or wanting another perspective on Bush 41 and his years in office.  It may, in point of fact, be more of a woman’s book.  However, do not take that to mean that it is all emotion or chatter. The Bush family is not that and neither is Barbara Bush.  She’s a grounded individual, articulate and thoughtful, gregarious like her husband and with a flair for finding the best in people and the best in a situation. As she put it, “…you have two choices in life.  You can like it or not.  I chose to like it.”

I found the book to be really good reading. Plenty of pictures, too!   

Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

 Hillary Clinton’s book Living History might be better titled, Diary of a Mad First Lady for Hillary Rodham Clinton is certainly that.  She is an intelligent woman who, had she had the presence of mind not to throw her lot in with a charlatan, would have likely done very well on her own.  That she somehow thought her star could rise with Bill’s was her tragic downfall.  

When she and Bill Clinton met during their law school years at Yale, it was clear that he planned to go into politics.  Hillary, through her mentor Marian Wright Edelman, looked to be on track to undertake what Hillary characterizes as her life-long advocacy for children’s rights (to which she later added women’s rights).  She and Bill lived together, traveled together and campaigned for McGovern together. Hillary Rodham was busy with research projects, writing articles and clerking.  She led a voter registration drive in Texas and was a member of the impeachment staff investigating Richard Nixon. She appeared to be making her own way. 

Hillary says that Bill Clinton was determined to marry her. Yet it was she who trailed him to Fayetteville, AK.  After all she wrote, if the relationship was to succeed someone had to “give ground.” It must not have occurred to her to ask why it wasn’t him. 

Soon after marriage, Bill became Attorney General in Arkansas and Mrs. Clinton became a member of the Rose law firm. Not that she wanted to work for such a prestigious firm. She had always “resisted” private law but now she felt it made sense because Bill’s salary as AG was so paltry. When he became governor it was the same problem.  With a salary of just $35,000 a year she felt the need to “build up a nest egg.”  That’s when Mrs. Clinton began dabbling in commodities and she and Bill invested in Whitewater Estates. 

At page 76, the chapter entitled Little Rock, is when questions about Hillary Clinton’s emotional intelligence really kick in.  Hillary Rodham Clinton seems to have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to self-awareness and good judgment about herself and others.  In short, Hillary Clinton doesn’t ever seem able to figure anything out.  On the one hand, she tells us she’s sharp as a whip, a self-assured take-charge type.  In the next paragraph she is mystified and aflutter with conflict. As a single woman, she was dedicated to children’s rights advocacy and following her heart to Bill, but she was “utterly confused” about where her life was headed.  As a married woman, she was worried about making ends meet though “we lived in the Governor’s Mansion and had an official expense account.”  When the Clintons got involved with Jim McDougal, they knew he had “reassuring” credentials and a “solid reputation.”(pg. 87) After all, Bill Clinton had known McDougal for ten years.  Later, Hillary just couldn’t understand how she and Bill misjudged him.   

When she became the nation’s First Lady, her troubles multiplied. Right off the bat, President Clinton named his wife chair of the President’s Task Force on National Health Care Reform. Both the issue and Hillary were immediately controversial. Again, Mrs. Clinton seems to have had no idea what lay ahead.   She recounts that, after her appointment, then-governor of New York Mario Cuomo approached her asking what she had done to make her husband so mad. Hillary drew a blank.  What was Cuomo talking about?  Cuomo replied that her husband would “have to be awfully upset about something to put you in charge of such a thankless job.”  The slap in the face didn’t register with Hillary. She barreled ahead. 

Hillary claims she was quite comfortable with the non-traditional role she planned to take as First Lady.  “To me, there was nothing incongruous about my interests and activities.” She liked improving health care just as much as she liked working on table settings (paraphrase)!   In the next sentence she writes, “…through my own inexperience, I contributed to some of the conflicting perceptions about me.”  It took her “awhile to figure out” that not everyone would see things her way.  At one point she complains that the governorship didn’t properly prepare her and Bill for the national stage. (pg. 141) 

In addition to a seeming inability to understand herself and those around her, Mrs. Clinton is always in crisis mode.  She characterizes her life as one muddled dilemma after another. It’s not clear whether this is dramatic posturing on her part or whether it’s an accurate reflection of a woman constantly in conflict.  Hillary isn’t exactly a liar. She’s a dissembler. She prevaricates.  She deceives herself first and seems to think others will follow suit.  

Amidst the fury over her role in health care reform, Hillary describes herself as a First Lady who would lead the way in an “era of changing gender roles.”  She would help accustom people to seeing women occupy positions of power.  Some two years and 120 pages later, however, she depicts herself in the middle of a maelstrom, a good wife trying to support her husband.  She suggests that it was her staff who inspired her to be a pioneering female role model.    

It happened after the crushing mid-term elections that ushered in a Republican Congress.  Hillary went into full crisis-mode behavior.  As she met with her all-female staff (pg. 261), she describes her despair in the face of the election results.  “Fighting back tears, my voice cracking, I poured out apologies.  I was sorry if I had let everyone down and contributed to our losses.  It wouldn’t happen again.”  She was “considering” leaving her political work behind, she was cancelling appearances, she didn’t want to hurt her husband’s administration.  Hillary claims that silence fell over the group.  Then, her loyal posse gave it to her straight.  They brought her out of her stormy crisis and into the sunshine of a new day.  Now she understood. She couldn’t quit.  “Too many other people, especially women, were counting on me.”  Pg. 261 

The book continues with contradictions and elaborations that alternately depict Hillary as confident leader or struggling victim. As the confident leader, it is Hillary who calls Dick Morris to discuss strategy.  It is Hillary who enlightens when normal minds are stumped.  It is Hillary who is forever at Bill’s side being “a helpful partner for him.”  It is “Bill and I” who consider policy.  In an almost delusional passage, Hillary tries to convince us that she was even involved in the Mid-East peace negotiations.  She writes that she often took calls from Leah Rabin and Queen Noor of Jordan when their respective husbands---that is, the Prime Minister of Israel and the King of Jordan---wanted to get information to the President through “informal channels.” (pg.315) Meaning her? Embarrassing. 

As the victim, Mrs. Clinton devotes a considerable number of pages to defending herself and her husband against the scandals and accusations that hounded them during Clinton’s eight years in office. In fact, other than welfare reform and a few scattered chapters on foreign policy, the Clinton years seem nothing but scandal---Vince Foster, Travelgate, Whitewater, her commodities trading, the McDougals.  She aggressively lambasts her adversaries and covers for herself and Bill.  She casts herself as victim of the political right wing and as loyal advisor and soulmate to the man she loves.  Can you imagine?  And we haven’t even gotten to Monica Lewinsky. 

Up until page 439, the chapter entitled ‘Soldiering On,’ Hillary Clinton explains away every other instance of her husband’s serial sexual exploitation and degradation of women.  Monica Lewinsky is the affair she finally couldn’t re-write.  Once again, Mrs. Clinton can’t understand how it all happened. She is in crisis.  When Bill finally told the truth, she was “gulping for air...crying and yelling….”  She couldn’t believe “he would do anything to endanger our marriage and our family.” (Huge eye roll.)   In the end, she says she stood by him because he was the President and, as President, he had done nothing wrong.  

The book rollercoasters on.  In one bizarre chapter, ‘Conversations with Eleanor,’ she describes her mystical, reverential connection to Eleanor Roosevelt.  In similar fashion in another chapter, she recounts an afternoon spent with Jackie Kennedy in Jackie’s NYC apartment.  With the sycophantic adulation of an outsider courting the in-crowd, Hillary portrays herself and Jackie as kindred spirits whose souls meshed into a perfect friendship.  It’s pathetic really. 

There are a few chapters that read more normally such as those that cover her travels to Central Europe, Africa and South Asia; the content is fairly interesting.  Her final chapters are devoted to her rancor about the 2000 election that Gore lost and her campaign for senator of New York.  Regarding the former, she lays out a no-holds-barred aggressive attack on the courts and the Republicans.  Regarding the latter, it’s mostly self-congratulatory fluff about everyone wanting her to run for the Senate.  

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a tragic figure.  Her decision to marry Bill Clinton led to one failure after another, and, in the end, to a demise that even she didn’t deserve.  One has to feel for her. After the humiliations she suffered as First Lady, she scrambled and scraped only to get a dreary stint as a senator. Then she lost a presidential nomination to a younger black man who outdid her in both arrogance and posturing. Obediently accepting it all, she settled for fourth fiddle as his Secretary of State but only as the final springboard that would certainly garner her the well-deserved gold ring of the presidency.  Alas.  She lost out again, this time to a smart-aleck white guy who treated her as badly as her husband always had. 

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a humiliated wife, an alternately exploited and dismissed political appendage to her deviously self-absorbed and emotionally shallow husband.  She is a remnant discarded by the Democrat Party and the feminist movement whose mascot she briefly was. For better or for worse, she has written about all of it in this book. 

Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush

In her autobiographical memoir, Spoken from the Heart, Laura Bush shows herself to be a very smart, well-adjusted and normal person.  These qualities are what certainly must have led her to being such a gracious and confident public persona on the international stage.  

The first chapters of the book are, truly, spoken from the heart. With a lot of feeling and insight about herself and her parents, she writes about growing up in dusty Midland, Texas, an only child who longed for brothers and sisters.  As a baby boomer growing up on the “other side of the 60s,” the cultural milieu of her early life is really part of history.  It was good reading.  After college, she lived on her own while teaching in Houston and pursuing a degree in library science.  When she and George Bush were introduced by mutual friends, it seems to have been a relationship meant to be.  Throughout the book and without being maudlin or overly personal, she refers to the solid respect and devotion she and the president have for one another. 

After the first 150 pages of this (400-plus page) book, Mrs. Bush’s writing often reads a lot like the standard apologetics books so predictable with public servants.  It is here that the reading does become tedious at times. By age 49 she was the First Lady of Texas and six years later she was First Lady of the United States.  More than half the book is devoted to her life as a public person.  The terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the Afghan and Iraq Wars dominated the Bush presidency.  On these issues as well as Katrina, other areas of foreign policy and domestic issues, Mrs. Bush invariably and glibly supports and praises the decisions the President made.  

Still, she sprinkles in color and opinion along the way as she continues to discuss life with her daughters, her in-laws (“Bar” and “Gampy”), campaigning and entertaining.   She writes with genuine interest and concern about her work in Afghanistan, Burma, Africa and here at home with book campaigns and teenage gangs.  I believe that George and Laura Bush do nothing without first deciding if it is the virtuous thing to do.  Despite a noblesse oblige that may underpin their actions, they are sincere, honest and consistent in their beliefs.  They are not afraid to get their hands dirty and will do whatever it takes to get a job done.  

One exception to the consistency and sincerity of Mrs. Bush’s beliefs concerns abortion. She addresses the topic in this book but fudges it in my opinion.  She remains unclear on exactly what she does believe and blames the press for labeling her pro-abortion.  It is difficult to understand why Laura Bush appears to adopt the typical feminist stance on abortion when her thinking in other areas is so clear.  In the early years of their marriage, she and then-citizen George Bush were about to adopt a child, having difficulty conceiving on their own.  How do you justify abortion while simultaneously understanding first-hand the fragility and tenuousness of life.  

Despite her fuzziness on what I guess was the difficult topic of abortion, Mrs. Bush doesn’t typically shy away from the unpleasant.  She made repeated references to the smug, relentless sniping of the mainstream media during her husband’s presidency and discussed how she handled it.  She devoted quite a few pages to the tension and uncertainty provoked by Al Gore and the Democrats in the 2000 election.  (Reading between the lines, I’d say the Bush camp saw the Democrats’ behavior as petty and self-serving.)  Amidst the discussion, however, she stays cool and doesn’t ever give anybody the real tongue-lashing they deserve.   Even when writing about how the elitist press condescendingly treated her as a know-nothing from Texas, she remains above-board.   

The pace that she and W maintained during his presidency can be described in a word, whirlwind.  Perhaps this is true of any presidency and of every First Lady, but I kind of doubt it.  Laura Bush threw herself into a great number of projects and followed a travel and entertainment schedule that might have scared off a lesser individual (or a more self-absorbed or self-promoting first lady, a few come to mind).  She visited 75 countries, hosted more than 1,500 dinners and events, restored 5 and refurbished 25 rooms in the White House, attended summits and symposiums and panels.  And all this is not to mention her extensive work with Burmese refugees, AIDS patients in Africa (a country she traversed 5 times) and extensive work in Afghanistan (three visits) with women and children.  

Having visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library at SMU and following as I do the programs at the Bush Center, my allegiance to and interest in the Bush family waxes and wanes.   They are clearly dedicated to making a difference in the world and continue with projects they started during the Bush presidency.  Yet, their antipathy towards Donald Trump and his presidency bespoke a decided lack of vision I thought.  In addition, their moderated approach is ineffective in these turbulent times.  Nonetheless, this informative book has put my interest back in the waxing category.  Read it!

Windows for the Crown Prince by Elizabeth Gray Vining

During the post-World War II American occupation of Japan, Elizabeth Vining was selected to be the English tutor for Crown Prince Akihito. Written with complete and refreshing candor, this book recounts in Mrs. Vining’s own words her four years in Japan in that capacity.

The idea of an English tutor was not imposed by the Occupation but was, rather, the idea of Emperor Hirohito himself.  He stipulated that the tutor should be a “Christian but not a fanatic,” someone who did not speak Japanese and someone who knew little to nothing about Japan.  Elizabeth Vining certainly fit the bill.  Elizabeth Janet Gray Vining was a Quaker, a native of Philadelphia, PA, graduate of Bryn Mawr College and Drexel Institute of Technology.  She was a respected and well-connected member of the Quaker community and an established writer of children’s literature.  A connection through her time in the American Friends Service Committee made her a highly suitable candidate for the position of tutor.  

Though she did have some ties with the international community in Japan, Mrs. Vining ventured off to Japan alone and a widow. Her marriage to Morgan Vining had ended in tragedy when her husband was killed in a car accident just several years into their marriage. They had no children. It was during this period of mourning her husband that Vining left her Episcopalian faith to become a Quaker.  In the last two years of her stint in Japan, she was joined by her sister, presumably to fill the loneliness she only alludes to but must have surely felt so far from home.

In Japan, Mrs. Vining had a furnished home, a cook and a driver.  Her constant companion, secretary and interpreter was (Mrs.) Tane Takahashi, also a Quaker.  Who was actually Mrs. Vining’s boss is not clear, but she reported on occasion directly to General MacArthur.  She also had not infrequent entrée to the imperial family.  She regularly dealt with the chamberlains assigned to the Crown Prince and made recommendations and reports on his education to the chamberlains as well as to the Emperor and Empress.

Mrs. Vining led a privileged life in post-war Japan, but that is not to say that she didn’t work hard.  Her initial assignment included tutoring the prince once a week in English and teaching no more than 8 hours a week at the Gakushuin he attended. The prince was 12 at the time of her arrival, having just completed their equivalent of elementary school.  He would now go on to the equivalent of American junior high school under a slightly new and democratized system instituted by the Occupation.  Her duties expanded  rather quickly into tutoring others including members of the imperial family (but never the Emperor). She lectured and traveled as well, both in Japan and elsewhere.

Her work ethic, her deeply-held beliefs in Quaker ideals, her love of American democracy and her genuine concern for her fellow human being all combined to mark her as a person of immense integrity and sincerity.   She undertook her job as tutor with a broad view of its impact in the post-war international world. She had a desire to promote “the ideals of liberty and justice and good will upon which peace must be based if it is to endure.”  At the same time, she took a very personal interest in the Crown Prince often expressing sadness that he couldn’t grow up like a normal boy and always advocating to the imperial family and the chamberlains that he be given that opportunity.  She and the Crown Prince-later-Emperor had an enduring relationship which continued until Vining’s death.

This book is an obvious sidebar to Bergamini’s Japan's Imperial Conspiracy.   Bergamini mentions, without much fanfare, Mrs. Vining’s selection as tutor in his chapters on the Occupation. Thus was I reminded that I had often heard of Mrs. Vining and her books growing up as I did a Quaker in Kennett Square, PA where Elizabeth Gray Vining was a local figure. (The reader will be reminded that my own formerly Catholic and Presbyterian parents joined the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers, and we all attended London Grove Friends Meeting into my teen years.) The thrift, industry, honesty and simplicity historically characteristic of Quakers is embodied in Mrs. Vining. The human secularism of the Quaker faith, a Christian sect actually, is just Western enough and just Christian enough that it would appeal to the Emperor who didn’t want anything too fanatical. 

Which brings us to the Emperor.  Vining herself had the traditional view of the Emperor. She had been told by people in Japan that Hirohito was someone who “disapproved of what the war party did in his name and who had at different times attempted to avert war.”  She described him as a shy figurehead who was manipulated by his jingoistic military and hardline advisors.  There is of course not a shred of evidence to support that in Bergamini’s book and I was not tempted to subscribe to Mrs. Vining’s view of the Emperor. 

She did, however, acknowledge the opposite view.  Mrs. Vining devoted a chapter to the War Crimes Tribunal which, as a V.I.P.  member of the Occupation, she was permitted to attend.  Her discussion did give a nod to Bergamini’s perspective when she wrote: “Elements in the United States and Australia also declared the Emperor responsible, and in some quarters his abdication was called for.”  She went no further than that.    

I’m sorry but I can attribute nothing good to Emperor Hirohito.  I seriously doubt that his seeming open-mindedness in suggesting an English tutor for his son arose out of any love for American values or from a desire to be more Western.  Instead, I consider it was a calculated move on his part to dissemble and appear to be working with the Occupation. It was “belly talk.”  I find it instructive that he preferred the tutor-candidate to have as little familiarity with Japan and its culture as possible.  That way, he could present exactly the view of his homeland that he wished, or at least as much of a one-sided view as the Occupation would allow. 

Despite Mrs. Vining’s very admiring descriptions of Japan and its customs, geography and history,  I found myself still regrettably incapable of warm feelings for this nation and its culture.  For example, Mrs. Vining devoted an entire chapter to an account of a Japanese poetry-writing tradition dating back to the 10^th century.  The tradition consisted of the emperor, at the time of the New Year, announcing a theme upon which everyone could write a poem in waka verse and submit their creation to be judged as part of a contest of sorts. Typical themes were Spring in the Mountains or New Grass.  For the year Mrs. Vining describes, the theme chosen by the emperor was Morning Snow.

Vining submitted a poem and was then invited to the “annual party when the New Year poems were read in the presence of the Emperor and Empress.”  Before attending the party, the head of the Bureau of Poetry—the Bureau of Poetry!-- paid a visit to Mrs. Vining to instruct her in all the intricacies of the “party” which read more like some arcane ritual with no meaning or purpose that I could discern.  To cap off the evening, the Emperor’s poem was chanted 5 times by the chanters while “Most people stood with their heads bowed, as if in prayer.”  Here is the Emperor’s poem:

At the sight of snow deep in my garden of a morning my thoughts go to people who are shivering in the cold

I’m rendered speechless. What complete nonsense.  Another example of what would seem to be a society of children playing at being grown-ups, except some of the grown-ups were able to aggregate to themselves the power to act to conquer the world, and, with little regard for human life in the process.    

Elizabeth Vining leaves out very little in this book.  She is thorough and detailed in recounting everything from the rationale for the English lessons she used to her exchanges with General MacArthur to her relationship with the Crown Prince and the imperial family. Elizabeth Vining is in my estimation a singular woman, an accomplished individual who was true to the values and principles she professed. Elizabeth Janet Gray Vining died in 1999.  She lived out her remaining years in Kennett Square, in the Quaker retirement community, Kendall, where my sisters worked!  Once again, history ties us all together.