Redtree Times

Watchful Presence-– At Principle Gallery

Perhaps a man’s character is like a tree and his reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

—Abraham Lincoln, Washington in Lincoln’s Time (1896)

Sadly, Jimmy Carter passed away yesterday at the age of 100. 

He was indisputably a man of character.

Honest, principled, compassionate, unselfish, and highly intelligent. I could probably add any number of other positive attributes here, but that would be like pointing out high limbs on an already towering tree.

We probably didn’t deserve him. Our character seldom matched his and it sometimes felt as though we almost resented the strength and goodness of his character, even though he never preached at us. It was as though our own lacking character was somehow shamed by his. 

We shunned honesty and accountability, instead repeatedly displaying our preference for flattery, meaningless slogans, unfulfilled promises, and empty reassurances that there were easy answers to all our problems.

It has come to the point where we almost beg to be told lies so the smallness of our own character is not revealed.

As a result, character such as that of Jimmy Carter has become an almost disqualifying quality in our elected officials. We may never see the likes of Jimmy Carter again in public life. The current environment of manipulated information and media makes such tall trees susceptible and too easily felled.

Where tall trees should stand, we now place tiny, twisted shrubs, whose shadows are equally short and twisted.

Jimmy Carter may have been the last of the tall trees.

We still stand in your shadow. Good travels to you in the afterlife, Mr. President. 

The quote at the top comes from an 1896 book, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, from Noah Brooks, who had first encountered Lincoln during Brooks’ time as young journalist in Illinois. Brooks became a close friend of the Lincoln family and wrote this book based on his conversations and travels with Lincoln, This quote about trees came in a conversation a day after Brooks had spent the day with Lincoln in Virginia where the President stood on a tree stump and talked about how he loved the shape of the silhouettes that leafless made against the sky and the fineness of the shadows they and their branches cast upon the ground.

Lincoln was another towering tree of character.

A little additional info:  Noah Brooks also wrote the first novel exclusively about baseball, Our Base Ball Club and How It Won the Championship, in 1884.