Ted Kennedy -- A Lesson In Transitions

I never knew Ted Kennedy personally --- yet he was a large part of my life. My sadness at his passing has amazed me. I just turned 65 in June. As I suspect happens with many of my peers, I don’t see myself as 65 years of age. But in watching the panoply of photos marching across the television screen, I feel my own personal history riding with them.

Once again I am a young bride --- filled with hope. Filled with the fantasies of the time heaped upon our heads. Pictures of the perfect wife maintaining the perfect home for her perfect family. The funny thing about transitions is when you are part of such an event, you never know it! As one who ventured into womanhood during a time when women’s rolls were changing --- burning bras, gaining positions in management and so much more --- it is only in retrospect that we actually see the transition!

I now find myself wondering how many other transitions I’ve participated in without recognizing them. When I look backwards I find myself considering the yellow brick road --- how we plodded down the road, one brick after another in succession --- each brick such a part of life that it passed without notice.

And yet today, I found myself entranced by the old photos --- my memories of those days still so vivid --- I wore those dresses and hats and shoes. I was pretty and young and vibrant then. Now I feel old and plodding and frumpy. I miss those days. I miss the feeling of excitement in the pit of my stomach. As I watched Kennedy family members of my age approaching the Kennedy Library, I could only wonder if Jacqueline Kennedy would have looked our age had she had been in attendance. Somehow I doubt it!

Ted Kennedy’s passing fills me with sadness. He was someone who knew he had tremendous weaknesses --- yet he admitted them. And he spent most of his adult life striving to do better because of them. He didn’t shrink from public life. He was an extraordinary uncle and substitute father to so many Kennedy children. Such a huge lesson for folks like me. He had his faults and yet he managed to surpass those faults --- he taught us all that despite our mistakes we could still excel.

For me, personally, an era has passed. He felt great pain and yet he taught us how to deal with it constructively. As a young man he took on the responsibility for so many nieces and nephews left without a father. And in doing so he passed on his heritage and all the honor it encompassed --- a lesson to be learned by young and old alike.

His wonderful sense of humor was evident in all he did. Today, watching the Kennedy family gather on the porch at Hyannisport as the casket was being loaded in the hearse, I couldn’t help but notice a young man wearing an appropriate dark sport jacket --- beneath it were shorts and flip-flops. And I heard the Lion roar. How Teddy would have enjoyed that moment of reality amidst all the pomp and circumstance.

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K. Eckerle
Virtual Assistant/Paralegal/IndustryConsultant
Website: www.cardinalpointva.com
E-mail: assistant at cardinalpointva.com