Unca Jimmy, I'll do better-- I swear!!

I truly admire and respect Jimmy Carter. I believe that Jimmy Carter, in the ways that most resonated with me, was a fine President. I have often said "he had too much integrity to be President." He acted on principle, not political expedience, and, given the arena in which he maneuvered, well, politics was the done thing; and the press preferred that. I've worried that perhaps Obama has too much integrity to be President; maybe he's more of a leader than a political figure, and we'd all be better served if there were a non-political vantage point from which he could serve. Maybe we need an electable favorite celebrity, kinda like royalty, but we get to change up every few years. That person, would have a relationship with the governing power similar to that depicted in The Queen (except our Queen would also be electable--just staggered against the President's --let's call it-- election, so it behooves the two to work well together-- though not "in cahoots"). Another level of the checks and balances, if you will, that have thus far served us so well. :)

Two things: the fact that I actually typed the word 'dot' when typing the URL to blog mobilely, AND the tangent above, suggest perhaps, tonight's glasses of Pinot Noir at Lebanese Taverna with the Colombians.

In any case, I have a great deal of esteem for Jimmy Carter. Seeing him tonight on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, humble as ever, was nice to see, although the juxtaposition of the two was a little unsettling; the former President seeming somehow "less than" the talk show host during the handshake. Simultaneous celebritization and degradation of the culture(maybe simultaneous is redundant; or, worse and likely, degradation is consequent to celebritization) is a fascinating thing.

Jimmy Carter eschews celebritization and continues to live by principle, doing the honorable, though not politically expedient, thing. If the results of his actions in the Middle East actually facilitate a peace of some duration, imagine how history would laud his defiance! Until then he remains the loving, kindly, great Uncle in a cardigan whose life is a subtly nagging reminder of what good we each could be doing in the world.