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Looking At And Longing For Mars: Reflections on a childhood dream.
A Robot May Not Harm a Human Being. Is The Opposite True?: Thoughts on the future rights of artificial intelligence.
Long After The Boys Of Summer Have Gone: What makes a relationship work?
Winter Of Our Feline Discontent: What the cat wants, the cat gets. But what DOES it want?
To Tell The Truth: There may be no honor among thieves, but can't we find it even in a few good men and women?
Should The Human Brain Retire?: We know that we cannot win forever. We know that machines will continue to improve. So why don't we let the human brain retire gracefully now, with honors?
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Published: Sep 16, 2005 01:41 PM
Thu - June 17, 2004
Amazing Grace, Fantastic Courage
The drama lasted almost two months and tested every emotional reserve we had.
By contrast, Ronald Reagan's journey into the sunset of his life lasted ten years—a decade in which Nancy Reagan never faltered in her quest to protect his image or care for his person, even as he slowly, tragically forgot everything that he knew in the 52 years they had spent together.
Including her name.
I can't imagine the test of endurance such an ordeal brings, let alone the additional burdens of facing it in the public eye while rallying a family that seemed divided at the end of the president's second term.
And yet, last week, amidst the sadness at a good man's death, there seemed to be a payoff. Nancy Reagan's long winter of despair had planted seeds that bore fruit in new family unity and mutual support, particularly between mother and daughter. The Reagan clan at last rallied as one and each of their eulogies for the patriarch, more eloquent and heartbreaking than the last, also paid fitting tribute to her loyalty and to her courage.
If it pained me to watch an octogenarian widow shepherding her husband's body around the country for the benefit of public curiosity and emotional closure, if it saddened me to see photographers swarm around her like gnats, hoping for a payoff shot of the inconsolable bereaved, if she sometimes seemed more stunned than in control of her emotions, I was nevertheless moved by Nancy Reagan's fierce determination to see things through.
Mourners heaped praise on the late president last week, calling him a Great Communicator, a shining example, a role model, and a teacher.
We have a word for the kind of grace and humility that Nancy Reagan showed last week and for the past decade, too.
We call it character.