SMOOTHING OUT THE WRINKLES

For the past few years my wife and I have been taking bus trips sponsored by local touring companies visiting presidential homes and libraries. We’ve covered most of the east coast and will do Ohio this summer. Not too long ago we flew to California to visit the Nixon and Reagan Libraries among other sites. We already knew much about each of the presidents before we visited their homes and libraries. On those trips we, of course, learned more.

One of our learnings, which we fully expected, is that the tour guides, in my words, always tent to smooth out the wrinkles of the president whose library we visit. Our latest visits were no different. At the Reagan Library there was not one mention by the docent nor one indication in any of the photos or videos of the Iran-Contra Affair. Zip! Nada! Our docent at the Nixon Library blamed the break in at the Watergate which started that who mess on the release of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg. Patent nonsense.

Trying to hide Iran-Contra of blame Watergate on some convoluted reasoning does a disservice to both presidents and their presidency. Reagan was not as wonderful as his library makes him out to be nor was Nixon as bad as Watergate made his presidency seem. Being honest with the wrinkles is important. When we visited the homes of the presidents who owned slaves even though they were opposed to slavery, the docents were upfront about the conundrum their president faced.

We all have wrinkles. When we make our heroes or leaders or anyone else for that matter seem somehow better than they are or were, we do them a disservice. When we try to do it to ourselves, we do the same. Our wrinkles are part of who we are, warts and all, as some would say. For us mere mortals it is important to recognized and even, if necessary, acknowledge those wrinkles, those failings and shortcomings. It is only in that way that we can try to iron them out, not to act as if they were never there but to make ourselves into a better person because of them.

Richard Nixon, great diplomat and social reformer that he was (look it up if you don’t believe me, and this coming from a life-long Democrat) became an even greater diplomat and presidential advisor after his resignation. He smoothed out his wrinkles. Good for him. Good for us. Good for the world. Maybe Ronald Reagan would have as well if Alzheimer’s hadn’t taken his life before he could.

The measure of our worth is often not so much in what we accomplish when all is going well, but how we have recognized the mistakes and failings that have wrinkled us and become a better person because of them. That is not easy to do because it takes great humility, often a great deal of humility, to do so. But if and when we do, like Richard Nixon, who “came to Jesus” with David Frost, our little world and we ourselves will be better for it. And isn’t that precisely the Gospel message?