Your Life in Presidents

Today, January 9, 2025, was the National Funeral Service for the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.

As I viewed the service online I was struck by the sincere compliments to Jimmy Carter. He only served one term in office, but his life was full of service and he had an outstanding post-presidency. Together with his wife of 77 years, Rosalyn Carter, they worked for peace and the betterment of others.

Many people consider the President of the United States to be the most powerful leader in the world. That likely is because the United States is considered by many to be the most powerful country in the world.

Whether it is true or not that the USA is the most powerful country in the world, there is a great responsibility that comes with the power of being president.

The POTUS, as the president is sometimes referred to, is viewed as an important figure. Although the history of the United States is not as lengthy as some countries, this great experiment in democracy has lasted nearly 250 years.

Every four years there is an election held to determine the leader. The latest election was November of 2024 and President-elect Donald Trump will begin his second term on January 20, 2025. He is one of only two Presidents ever elected to non-consecutive terms.

I've been thinking about the perspective that comes with living long enough to note a number of individuals who have held this office.

I was born in 1955, so that means Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden and once again Trump.

Viewing my life through that particular lens of history reveals more than the daily drama we often experience surrounding our American Presidents.

When I first wrote this post a couple of years ago our oldest living former president, Jimmy Carter, then 98, had gone into home hospice. It's amazing that he continued living until the age of 100, the longest lived life of any onetime President of the United States.

Although Carter only served one term his legacy lives on. He helped engineer a Middle East accord between Egypt and Israel and was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

There has been a great divisiveness in the "land of the free and home of the brave" the past few years. But it is not the first time.

More than 150 years ago our country was nearly ripped apart by a civil war. The president at that time was not as widely respected then as he is now. His burden was very great and when the war between the states ended he felt it important to begin a healing process. History has judged Abraham Lincoln to be one of the greatest presidents.

Presidents come and go and the legacy they leave is there for the viewing. The best ones, in my opinion, are those who tried to do the right thing, especially in times of moral dilemma, and who recognized that as leaders their responsibility was to lead and not to rule.

Perhaps there is a lesson in that for us all.

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