A Passing Era
Barbara Pierce Bush, First Lady of the United States with President George H.W. Bush and mother of President George W. Bush was buried yesterday. She was ninety-two and, in keeping with her lifetime of strong decision making, chose palliative care in the last few days of her life. She was the backbone of the Bush family of six children, fourteen grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
She was the last of the “Greatest Generation” to serve as First Lady. Her death marked the passing of an era. The funeral echoed an earlier time, when our nation could check partisanship at the Capitol or White House door. While the Bush family has produced many Republican officeholders, former Presidents Obama and Clinton and other Democrats and Independents were invited to the ceremony. The current First Lady, Melania Trump was present as well.
George H.W. Bush served only one term as President. He was defeated in a hotly contested 1992 election by Bill Clinton. The on-again, off-again candidacy of Ross Perot as a third choice impacted the outcome. Yet when Clinton’s term was over, it was Bush and Clinton who came together for disaster relief, starting with the Tsunami in Indonesia. Clinton became a “surrogate son” to the Bush’s, not only in public settings, but also with the family at their Maine vacation home in Kennebunkport. Despite the electoral contest, two former Presidents were able to work together, improve the world, and build a friendship. Barbara Bush was a huge part of the success in that relationship.
Comity: defined as, “courtesy and considerate behavior towards others.” The funeral, filled with laughter and tears and memories of a life well lived, echoed the comity of a previous era, when there were clear lines of behavior that weren’t crossed. Granddaughter Jenna Bush quoted from Romeo and Juliet:
“When she shall die take her and cut her out into stars and she shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.”
Some will reach a conclusion that Jenna meant the “garish sun” to be someone specific (just as many accused Robert Kennedy of attacking President Lyndon Johnson with the same quote in 1964.) But in the Bush spirit of comity, I think she was speaking more of her “Ganny’s” plain speaking style, as a woman of grace and strength.
We are not in a time of comity – and certainly the fact that Jenna works for NBC will be the subject of Tweets and columns, as will the smile that Barack Obama elicited from Melania Trump. But for those of us who had the opportunity to watch or listen to the celebration of Barbara Bush, it brought back a more settled world, where every statement and decision didn’t feel like life and death.
Robert Kennedy also had a quote that fits our current situation:
“There is a Chinese curse which says ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind.”
Interesting times is what we have. What we make of it, is up to us.
