April 6, 2015
"Sanskrit has ninety-six words for love; ancient Persian has eighty; Greek three; and English simply one."
- Robert Johnson, The Fisher King and The Handless Maiden.
Can Eleanor Roosevelt be considered a hobby? I read about her and think about her a lot. It started young. When Blanche Weisen Cook came out with her two volume tome when I was in high school, I was psyched. It was more information than I had ever learned about another human being, especially someone I would never meet. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be of Eleanor Roosevelt, on my bootie. Ok, maybe not. But still a funny thought.
To know me is to understand that I adore Eleanor Roosevelt. I know I am not alone in this. After all, she oversaw the drafting and passage of the UN’s Universal Human Declaration of Rights. She was humanitarian, a feminist, and a writer. She used her mind and great influence to churn the waters of history in the direction of human rights. Her political and humanitarian accomplishments could run off the page… but it is not her unusual beauty or her great mind that she is remembered for, Eleanor Roosevelt is remember for her great heart.
What is truly memorizing to me is how totally unconstrained she was when it came to matters of the heart. She grew up without adoration or direct love. Her troubled parents died when she was young and she was raised by her grandmother, a strict socialite. Still, Eleanor sought connection. She held an insatiable curiosity about the inner workings of the heart and soul. Her love letters to her lovers and friends were legendary. Some of the most intimate were destroyed when she died to protect her privacy. I can only imagine what depth and vulnerability those letters held. She was fearless.
I think we vastly underestimate the heart, its capacity to expand and then expand more and more. I think Eleanor Roosevelt understood this very profoundly. She sought connection and then explored it so fully, her connection and curiosity insatiable. She met people as herself, fully with her heart open. This accessibility and warmth seemed to move the people who had the privilege of meeting her.
To live and to love with the sweetness, grace, and fearless composure of ER. 96 words for love. I want to know them all.
"Sanskrit has ninety-six words for love; ancient Persian has eighty; Greek three; and English simply one."
- Robert Johnson, The Fisher King and The Handless Maiden.
Can Eleanor Roosevelt be considered a hobby? I read about her and think about her a lot. It started young. When Blanche Weisen Cook came out with her two volume tome when I was in high school, I was psyched. It was more information than I had ever learned about another human being, especially someone I would never meet. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be of Eleanor Roosevelt, on my bootie. Ok, maybe not. But still a funny thought.
To know me is to understand that I adore Eleanor Roosevelt. I know I am not alone in this. After all, she oversaw the drafting and passage of the UN’s Universal Human Declaration of Rights. She was humanitarian, a feminist, and a writer. She used her mind and great influence to churn the waters of history in the direction of human rights. Her political and humanitarian accomplishments could run off the page… but it is not her unusual beauty or her great mind that she is remembered for, Eleanor Roosevelt is remember for her great heart.
What is truly memorizing to me is how totally unconstrained she was when it came to matters of the heart. She grew up without adoration or direct love. Her troubled parents died when she was young and she was raised by her grandmother, a strict socialite. Still, Eleanor sought connection. She held an insatiable curiosity about the inner workings of the heart and soul. Her love letters to her lovers and friends were legendary. Some of the most intimate were destroyed when she died to protect her privacy. I can only imagine what depth and vulnerability those letters held. She was fearless.
I think we vastly underestimate the heart, its capacity to expand and then expand more and more. I think Eleanor Roosevelt understood this very profoundly. She sought connection and then explored it so fully, her connection and curiosity insatiable. She met people as herself, fully with her heart open. This accessibility and warmth seemed to move the people who had the privilege of meeting her.
To live and to love with the sweetness, grace, and fearless composure of ER. 96 words for love. I want to know them all.
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