01-07-2012, 10:24 AM
Jim DiEugenio Wrote:Charles Drago Wrote:Jim DiEugenio Wrote:The "spiritual journey" was completed by the time he was president.
And herein lies your problem, Jim.
By definition, spiritual journeys have no terminus other than enlightenment.
In other words, they are all but endless.
John Kennedy died in a state of transition.
As shall we all.
John Kennedy's ten year "journey" was completed in 1961.
The things that followed were tactical obstacles he had to learn to overcome while in office.
And by the way, I never call this a "spiritual journey". I only used it because of precedent.
To me its simply a self-education Kennedy made. And the reason its something unusual is that Kennedy didn't have to do it. But for some reason he did.
In my view the key to understanding why he did it is in a conversation he had with Nehru. Nehru was trying to tell him about what the British Raj had done in India. Kennedy stopped him and said words to the effect that he knew about British imperialism even longer and more sterile than the one in India. He was, of course referring to his ancestral home of Ireland. This is why I think Kennedy decided to break away from the rehearsed briefings he was going to get in Saigon in 1951. He understood the pernicious influence of imperialism from England's 800 year rule in Ireland.
Q. Are we examining a spiritual journey or intellectual growth/maturation?
A. Yes.
You can't grasp the "reason" why JFK did what he "didn't have to do" because of your over-reliance on reason as the primary motivator of human behavior.
You will never -- repeat, never -- grasp the totality of JFK's life if you insist upon denying half of it.