Teddy Still Teaching From Above

  I’ve just reread…

  A Bully Father…Letters Theodore Roosevelt Wrote To His Children, by Jean Paterson Kerr.

He too reread books he liked and said, they always read brand new.

  This goes for me too. 

  For instance, he uses the word cunning a lot to describe his six children…Alice, Ted Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archie and Quentin. I always assumed it only meant crafty and sly.

  Its second meaning is, attractive and quaint….sweet in temperament…a pleasing disposition.

  I marvel at how the first two times I’ve read this wonderful collection along with several essays Ms Kerr includes about the Roosevelt family as a whole, that cunning just now caught my eye.

  A scramble was another term he used when he took his little bunnies on hikes or long walks that described him to a T, no pun intended.

 Teddy very vigorous by nature, inspired his kids to be. They were also avid readers thanks to him who read to them every night before bed.

The third Teddyism was when he wrote to his four boys while they were away at school, especially if they were struggling in some subject like Latin or Math...

 to keep pegging away, he’d say. I just love that since it can apply even now whenever something gets hard to do...

 to just keep pegging away.

 I’ll conclude with a quote from T.R. who according to Kerr read sometimes as many as five books a week, me feeling that if he had had a TV, it would have still made no difference…

 “I find reading a great comfort,” he said. “It gives me ease and relaxation that I can get no other way, not even on horseback.”

  He could have easily spoken for me, just without a horse to compare it to. 

          SB