{"id":684,"date":"2008-10-03T11:29:52","date_gmt":"2008-10-03T16:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=684"},"modified":"2011-04-18T18:09:10","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T23:09:10","slug":"abraham-and-sarah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/10\/abraham-and-sarah\/","title":{"rendered":"Abraham and Sarah"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Today, I wrote about kittens. We’re in a gigantic financial crisis, everybody knows it, everybody is going crazy about it, everybody else is writing about it, so sometimes the best thing to do is write about kittens.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

—\u00a0 Jon Carroll<\/a>, quoted last month by his paper, the <\/small>San Francisco Chronicle,<\/small> on winning
\nthe 2009 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award<\/a> from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n

It’s all here, in the U.S. Constitution<\/a> and amendments. Except for what isn’t in it. Like, “Any child can grow up to be president.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I heard that at school. It’s not something my parents would say at home.<\/p>\n

In my childhood, in the years shortly after ratification in 1788, the promise was a goad. A goad is like a goal but with a large croquet mallet above the kid’s head. Oh my goodness, the blunt object is figurative, for heaven’s sake.<\/p>\n

“Any child can grow up to be president” means any child who does well in school, does chores cheerfully and without prompting, and plays well with others, all these things year after year after year, can become leader of America. This is how Bill Clinton became president, and Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, too.<\/p>\n

I think the maxim was true enough. If you followed it at the least you became a decent human being, little trouble to others. Whether one wanted to be president of the country was another matter. Whether one would be any good at the presidency was also worth consideration when filling out college applications.<\/p>\n

(Me? As a boy I was extraordinarily well-behaved. But I grew up wanting to be a nonconformist. Oh well.)<\/p>\n

How the phrase is understood now must have evolved. With decades of self-esteem — every child takes home a trophy — overriding learning how to win and lose — by winning and losing — the “any child” means if you are a native-born U.S. citizen (beyond your control) and if you hit 35 years of age (eating and breathing should take care of that), you can be president.<\/p>\n

It’s old-fashioned to think that what this country needs are brilliant, maniacally self-disciplined leaders well-practiced in both team leadership and taking advice. Abe Lincoln is said to be the inspiration for the aphorism. And that such leaders practice what they believe, that democracy works and civil rights define freedom. Old-fashioned once was a patronizing but spot-on definition of conservatism. Now, expediency and cynicism are.<\/p>\n

With a clicker and a handful of kibble, we’ve trained Tiki the former alley cat to hop over a cane and leap from chair to chair on command. At age 7, he is in his 40s in human years and without a doubt is native born. He brims with self-confidence. Pound cat Rosemary, a year (and a decade) younger, will leave the sunny window for clicker training about every third time — my kind of gal.<\/p>\n

If I rummaged in the shed I might find a bicycle tire. Tiki would have no trouble picking up jumping through hoops. But to what end?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Today, I wrote about kittens. We’re in a gigantic financial crisis, everybody knows it, everybody is going crazy about it, everybody else is writing about it, so sometimes the best thing to do is write about kittens.” —\u00a0 Jon Carroll, quoted last month by his paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, on winning the 2009 Ernie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture","tag-ernie-pyle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":306,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/04\/national-columnists-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":0},"title":"National Columnists’ Day","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"On April 18, 1945, a Japanese sniper took out Ernie Pyle during a Pacific Island skirmish. Pyle was a beloved newspaperman, whose columns were anticipated by millions of readers of hundreds of newspapers. You couldn't say that about a lot of journalists then, much less now. Most war reporting was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2143,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/uphold-or-hold-up-standards\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":1},"title":"Uphold, or Hold Up, Standards","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Sunday, July 11, 2010 -- Indiana University feels bigger than my hometown's University of Arkansas. Yep, 1,933 acres versus 345 acres. It has a journalism school not a department, a music school not a department. It is a handsome forested campus, full of sculptures (even a huge Calder)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bloomers"","block_context":{"text":"Bloomers","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/bloomington-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NSNC Oath of Office","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Swearing-in-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2130,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/compassion-works-so-does-anger\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":2},"title":"Compassion Works. So Does Anger","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Saturday night, July 10, 2010 -- The learnin' part of the Saturday portion of the annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists ended at noon, unless you're a columnist (published or not). The usual field trip either can be written about or learned from. Lunch and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bloomers"","block_context":{"text":"Bloomers","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/bloomington-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Grounds of Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Holy-Grounds-300x225.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":328,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/06\/down-to-the-wire\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":3},"title":"Down to the Wire","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA -- The final sessions of the 2007 conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists were the most traditional. In panel discussion format, largely avoided until this morning, perennial subjects were again addressed: techniques, ethics, books and technology. This will be brief, a note or two on each. After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philadelphia Phreedom"","block_context":{"text":"Philadelphia Phreedom","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/philadelphia-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2885,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/06\/roger-and-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":4},"title":"Roger and Me","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Roger Ebert receives the 2011 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists A\u00a0version of this\u00a0Brick is published at columnists.com. DETROIT, Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- Following is the acceptance speech of Roger Ebert for the NSNC's Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award. Ebert's physical condition prevented\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "I'm Your Vehicle, Detroit"","block_context":{"text":"I'm Your Vehicle, Detroit","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/detroit-2011\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Roger Ebert accepts NSNC Lifetime Achievement Award 25 June 2011","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Roger-Ebert-062511-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":291,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/03\/rashly-rationalizing-rationing\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":5},"title":"Rashly Rationalizing Rationing","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Somewhere in Brick, and more than once I'm sure, I have opined that the reason the Iraq war has weak grassroots opposition is its distance from U.S. These thoughts are far, far from unique. For one thing, the Pentagon prevents photos being taken of caskets of military personnel being brought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2849,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/2849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}