by Midnight Freemasons Contributor
Michael Shirley
 |
| Harry S. Truman enjoying a walk in retirement (age 86) |
Harry Truman, long after he had been President of the United States,
said, “If a man can accept a situation in a place of power with the
thought that it’s only temporary, he comes out all right. But when he
thinks that he is the cause of
the power, that can be his ruination.”
Truman’s admiration for Lucius
Quinctius Cincinnatus, the Roman who answered the call to save the
Republic, reflects his own clear understanding of the limits of power.
Cincinnatus, an aristocrat and consul, was pushed out of power and
forced to live and work on his small farm. When Rome was threatened, he
was invited to be dictator. He accepted the invitation, saved Rome, and
gave up his power to return to his farm.
Truman’s exit from the
presidency was not so dramatic, but he never confused the presidency’s
power with his own. When his term of office ended, so did his power, as
he knew it should. His thoroughly clear sense of self, and his humility,
made it impossible for him to believe otherwise.
When he returned to his
home in Independence, an ex-president, a reporter asked him what he had
done first. “Carried the grips up to the attic,” he said. Cincinnatus
might have said the same thing.
~MS
W.B. Michael H. Shirley
is Past Master of Tuscola Lodge No. 332 and Leadership Development
Chairman for the Grand Lodge of Illinois. He's also a member of the
Illinois Lodge of Research, the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, Eastern
Star, and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon. He's also a member of the
newly-chartered, Illini High Twelve No. 768 in Urbana-Champaign. The
author of several articles on British history, he teaches at Eastern
Illinois University.
I googled this quote up to figure out what the heck "grips" in an attic might be.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I hadn't known Cincinnatus was an aristocrat or had been in power earlier - and was thinking today I ought read a good bio or history of him