JFK

I asked a friend yesterday if she thought that Gertrude Stein was a happy person, had a happy life.

I don't think she heard me, so I'll ask her again today.

She wrote a book about Gertrude Stein that's more or less a happy book, and I'm sure she has some information about Gertrude Stein that the rest of us don't have that could help me determine whether or not Gertrude Stein had a happy life.

If we were all happy or at least most of us were happy we wouldn't need politics as much as we seem to need them.

I had this little thought while watching the PBS special on JFK last night, the one in which history is at the mercy of mythology is at the mercy of history, and both history and mythology go back and forth between one another like they're trying to see which one is more true.

I'd forgotten that JFK wrote books, the first of which was called, Why England Slept in which he does not find fault with the appeasement policy the British government deployed in its dealings with Hitler while also proposing that it is the responsibility of a democracy to be armed and prepared at all times. The book was JFK's senior thesis paper at Harvard and his father paid for its publication. I'd forgotten too that his father had opposed entry into World War 2, had believed it was Europe's war and best left there.

Happiness is the best way to lead. JFK knew this on some sort of primitive level and was able to project happiness despite the sadness of the times and of his family. When the leader looks happy it's easier for the followers to feel the way the leader looks.

Happiness never tells you what you don't already know, which makes me wonder if Gertrude Stein was as happy in real life as she appeared to be, as she was always writing about things her readers knew nothing about.