Roosevelt | Tash Friday

Good morning Tash Appreciators!

During TF’s unscheduled absence over the last fortnight, I made a couple of journeys into rural Scotland. The first of those trips in particular was to a fairly remote part of the country and offered some spectacular scenery:

I found being out in the countryside very therapeutic. I’m not sure whether it was the road trip which made me feel like I was totally detached from the reality of everyday life or whether it was the views; but that’s really how it felt.

It strikes me that I am a fairly late convert to the therapeutic properties of leisurely travel and beautiful vistas. Australian Aborigines, for example, would go Walkabout during their adolescence and I suppose that gap years, these days, are a similar thing. Closer to home, there are plenty of examples of folk whose lives have been immeasurably enhanced by wide open spaces. One person in particular springs to mind, as he was born only 30 miles from where I’m currently sitting but ended up passing away 5,000 miles away, after a life devoted to the outdoors.

The chap I am referring to is John Muir. Although he was born in Dunbar, he moved to the US as a child and subsequently ventured to TF’s spiritual home, San Francisco. Immediately after arriving in San Francisco in 1867, he left for Yosemite; a place which would take the breath of even the most indoorsy of city dwellers:

Interestingly, Yosemite’s protection from commercial exploitation was secured by a couple of TF regulars. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, which set a precedent for the creation of the first national park at Yellowstone. In 1890, following lobbying by Muir, Yosemite National Park was created.

The Park’s current form was created after Muir took President Theordore Roosevelt (he of “daring greatly” fame) camping for three nights in May 1903. It was then, after the President awoke under a light dusting of snow on Glacier Point, that Muir persuaded Roosevelt to take the Park into the control of the Federal Government, which he duly did in 1906. There’s a great photo of Muir and Roosevelt up on Glacier Point. If you look at the waterfall on the right side of both the picture below and the picture above, you can get an idea of what the view was from Glacier Point, which in turn explains why Roosevelt took action to protect it:

In times when we are encouraged to broaden our horizons, and look beyond our current circumstances, I wonder how many of us get out to places where our horizons are literally broadened; where we can really experience the size and beauty of the world around us. I also wonder how many of us would be changed if we saw and appreciated the kinds of things that Muir did.

Naturally, this week’s Tash is John Muir. He had much more of a beard than a Tash but, to be fair, it would have been difficult to maintain a clean cut Tash when out in the wilderness. Also, who would have been looking at it? Muir had Yosemite all to himself most of the time.

Have a great weekend folks!

What’s next?

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

Welcome to the penultimate Tash Friday of 2013 – the first of a two-part Christmas Special. I’ll preface this week’s TF by saying that it may not seem all that festive but, fear not, it’ll all work out in the end.

I’ll start this week with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, which was sent to me earlier this week:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I know that many of our number have faced points in 2013 when they have felt very much like their faces are marred with dust and sweat and blood and when they can taste defeat. However, at the same time, the way in which those same people have conducted themselves after those points confirms the truth in what Roosevelt said.

Roosevelt was 42 when he took office: the youngest ever President. Becoming President also took him by surprise as he was sworn-in following the assassination of President McKinley. He must surely have felt at times that he was out of his depth.

However, just like all of those Appreciators who had to battle to get through 2013, Roosevelt did more than just survive – he thrived. His success was complete when he won a land-slide victory in the 1904 general election. Naturally, for a chap who was made of stronger stuff than the Average Joe, President Roosevelt wore an absolute stoater of a moustache:

The lesson which I will be taking into 2014, and beyond, is that our character is strengthened by adversity. This year may have been pretty rough, but as I will set out next week, there is plenty to be hopeful about as we head towards the New Year.

Just to finish this week, when I was reading up on Roosevelt, I found an interesting quote from Vice-President Thomas Marshall, who said after Roosevelt died in 1919:

“Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.”

I thought that was great.

Have a great weekend folks!

#keepgoing

Tash Friday

Tag Archives: Roosevelt

Walkabout

2014 and beyond – Part 1