THERE IS INTERNET speculation that the announced visit by Jill and Joe Biden to Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter is a sign of the immanent death of the greatest ex-president in the history of the country. I don't think it's necessarily that, if there's one thing that is obvious, the Bidens are a very gracious couple and I'm sure they would take the chance of visiting the Carters even without it being a sign of doom. Though when you get to be well into your 90s, the chances are that you're nearing the end even when you're in good health.
I voted for Jimmy Carter once, being an idiot, then secular, lefty angry with him for him falling victim to the media-DC insider campaign to knee cap him, I stupidly voted for Barry Commoner as a stupid protest vote in 1980. I did that only because I knew that Jimmy Carter was not going to win the election, if I thought he could have won it I would certainly have voted for Jimmy Carter.
I voted for non-Democrats twice, once that year because I was certain Jimmy Carter had been successfully eliminated from a second term by the media and in 1996 when I knew that there was no way Bill Clinton would not be reelected and so my stupid protest vote was even stupider because it was cast for that black hole of egotistical selfishness worshiped by the secular-lefty media, Ralph Nader, who went on to be the tool of the Republican-fascists in Florida and on the Supreme Court to install the second worst president in our modern history, George W. Bush. The worst of ours is no match for the worst of theirs in their own field.
Jimmy Carter, in his own intentions, would have been a great president if he'd known the Washington DC ropes better and if he had not depended so heavily on people he brought there from Georgia, just as Bill Clinton, also a governor and never a member of Congress brought people with him he shouldn't have. Seeing them and Barack Obama as opposed to the two other most recent Democrats in the office, Lyndon Johnson and, now Joe Biden, I would never support another person for the Democratic nomination except someone with extensive experience in the Congress. The presidency is no place for on-the-job learning, a presidential administration isn't an entry level job.
I'm not sure Clinton had in him what Carter did, Bill Clinton's post-presidency has certainly not been the model of generosity and wisdom, the greatness that Jimmy Carter and Rosalyn Carter made of his from. I am certain that their serious belief in Christianity was probably the determining factor in what made them the greatest of ex-Presidents and ex-First Ladies. I am not convinced of the same level of commitment to The Gospel and the Apostolic teachings in the New Testament in any of the others, certainly not in Barack Obama, though perhaps he'll start to do something in that direction that proves me wrong. I hope he does but I see no sign of that.
None of us are guaranteed our next breath at any age. I recently read about the second oldest religious sister in the United States, Sr. Francis Dominici Piscatell. who at 108 is twelve years older than Jimmy Carter.* She is quoted as saying, "I'm just living a normal life, thinking normally, reading and doing things an old lady would do." Maybe that's a clue as to how to live to that age, just doing what you do. Twelve years is like an hour, or like 12 years, depending on how you live it or look at it. Who knows, maybe there are still good things to come from Jimmy Carter, we don't know. It would be inspiring if the Carters managed it but they've already been an inspiration in their work and lives. I could still do with emulating them, it's better than what I do. Maybe it would honor them more by looking for a good, on hands volunteer opportunity today. So I'll be asking around.
* And there was the story of the 117 year old French nun who survived Covid a few months back.
Tavella told French media earlier this week that Sister André tested positive for the coronavirus in mid-January but she had so few symptoms that she didn't even realize she was infected. Her survival made headlines both in France and beyond.
"When the whole world suddenly started talking about this story, I understood that Sr. André was a bit like an Olympic flame on a 'round the world tour that people want to grab hold of, because we all need a bit of hope at the moment," Tavella said.
When Tavella talked to her Thursday about celebrating her next birthday in 2022, she replied: "I won't be here next year," he quoted her as saying, adding: "But she has been saying that for 10 years."
By strange coincidence, Tavella celebrated his 43rd birthday on Thursday.
"We often joke that she and I were born on the same day," he said. "I never tell myself that she is 117 because she is so easy to talk to, regardless of age. It is only when she talks about World War I as though she lived through it that I realize, 'Yes, she did live through it!'"
And I might drop dead as soon as I type this out. Better call the food bank to see if they need floors swept or something.
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