When Jack Kennedy learned on a May morning in 1948 that his sister Kathleen, known as Kick, had been killed in a plane crash in Europe, he had been listening to recordings from the Broadway musical "Finian’s Rainbow."
Bob Herbert begins with those words today, in a column that is titled Look to the Rainbow. It is a worthy column, as most of his are. And because he reminds us of Kathleen, we should remember that the number of siblings who died of unnatural causes early is four - her and the three oldest brothers who are so often remembered, Joe, Jack and Bobby.
But for me it is Herbert's use of Finian's Rainbow instead of Camelot that is key to this column, and leads to both my title and this diary.
The title of the column is a well-known song from that musical. It is a song I remember well, since we performed "Finian's Rainbow" when I was in high school. Here are the complete lyrics to "Follow the Rainbow:"
On the day I was born,
Said my father, said he.
I've an an elegant legacy
Waitin' for ye,
'Tis a rhyme for your lips
And a song for your heart,
To sing it whenever
The world falls apart.
Look, look
Look to the rainbow.
Follow it over the hill
And the stream.
Look, look
Look to the rainbow.
Follow the fellow
Who follows a dream.
Follow the fellow,
Follow the fellow,
Follow the fellow
Who follows a dream.
'Twas a sumptuous
To bequeath to a child.
Oh the lure of that song
Kept her feet funnin' wild.
For you never grow old
And you never stand still,
With whippoorwills singin'
Beyond the next hill.
Look, look
Look to the rainbow.
Follow it over the hill
And the stream.
Look, look
Look to the rainbow.
Follow the fellow
Who follows a dream.
Follow the fellow,
Follow the fellow,
Follow the fellow
Who follows a dream.
Follow the fellow who follows a dream After telling us near the end of the column that he finds "Finian's Rainbow" a more appropriate metaphor for the Kennedys than Camelot, and describing the lyric I have just bolded as "moving", Herbert offers this in his penultimate paragrpah:
That was Ted’s message at Bobby’s funeral. The Kennedys counseled us for half a century to be optimistic and to strive harder, to find the resilience to overcome those inevitable moments of tragedy and desolation, and to move steadily toward our better selves, as individuals and as a nation.
There are other notable expressions in the column, whether of Jack's notable speech at American University on the cold war, or of remarks by Bobby at Terre Haute that I had not known, but which show the concern he had developed for the poor:
"The poor are hidden in our society. No one sees them anymore. They are a small minority in a rich country. Yet I am stunned by a lack of awareness of the rest of us toward them."
It hurts to realize that too many in our society now more than four decades after his death remain unaware of the true condition of many Americans.
Herbert reminds us that service was an essential part of the Kennedy legacy - and also reminds us that is was not just the brothers, given the legacy of Eunice so visible in Special Olympics.
Even those who politically opposed the Kennedys should recognize how much they have given this country. Certainly in the words of two Republicans who were close to him, John McCain and Orrin Hatch, we heard last night some recognition of the role Teddy, the youngest and last of the brothers has played. I still hear in my mind the list of all he included in his vision, in his dream for this nation and the world: the old, the poor, people of color, women, the disabled. Is there anyone who was not included?
Ted's brother Bobby liked to quote Shaw:
Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.
Teddy lived out that quote. Perhaps Herbert touches me because as I look at the public life of Ted Kennedy, and the more I learn of the private life and the many kindnesses towards so many, he embodied that Shavian quote. As he did the famous words by Hubert Humphrey, which in this recounting I will change slightly, to make it about an individual, this individual, Ted Kennedy. Here is that modified version:
The moral test of man is how he treats those who
are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight
of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the
needy and the handicapped.
Ted Kennedy passed that moral test with flying colors. His heart was that large. It included, it did not exclude.
Herbert concludes by suggesting the funeral today is an apt occasion to remember what the Kennedy family has given us. That is true.
Might I suggest that we take the words of the song and make them our own: Follow the fellow who follows a dream. It is now up to us to step forward so that others will see that dreams are possible, that they too can join in following, or perhaps step past us and help us lead.
Finian's Rainbow is in part about a leprechaun who surrenders that status for love. Ted Kennedy was too large to be a leprechaun, but his irrepressible Irish spirit had much in common with leprechauns. And as he in his later life was rejuvenated by love from Vickie, his ability to continue to strive, to expand even further the capacity of his heart to include, should be an inspiration, even to those of us who are ourselves far closer to the ends of our time on earth than to our beginnings.
We need inspiration. We need motivation. We need to be reminded not merely of what is and to be bound thereby, but to dream of what still can be.
Follow the fellow who follows a dream.
Peace.