Lani's Blog

"It is better to have less thunder in the mouth....

December 14 prompt: "It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand." Indian proverb





This sounds like Teddy Roosevelt's famous line: "Walk softly and carry a big stick.  Either way it is about letting actions speak for you rather than words. Since it's an American Indian proverb, I wonder if he adapted it for his personality. TR spent some of his youth out in the American West. the Badlands of the Dakotas to be precise.





Oh damn! Is that the right time? It's 2:00a.m.! And since I got up for work yesterday at 4:00a.m., its been a helluva long day.





I wanted to talked about how TR was a thunderous personality and his second wife was the lightning in the relationship. That he was the big (physically & emotionally) loud politician, but she was bright and sharp.


There is that famous story of TR coming into the house with yet another cut and bleeding from doing repair work around the estate. Mrs. Edith Roosevelt calmly said," Theodore, I do wish you would do your bleeding in the bathroom. You're spoiling every rug in the house."  And the assignation attempt on TR. He was shot but went on to give a speech and then went to the hospital. When Mrs R got the word that he wasn't listening to his doctors, she grabbed the first train she could. "I am the only one who can manage him and make him obey doctors' orders," she declared.





So at 2:00a.m. the mind does weird things. I suppose the point is that there are people who are thunder and people who are lightning. TR was an effective politician from what I've read. It's hard to have a successful career though if your personal life is a mess. (Just ask some our more recent pols with their sex scandals) His wife Edith though seems to have been the "lightning" in his life that made his "thunder" effective.








Okay, folks it 9:12a.m. and reading this, I dunno. I guess I am posting it, because that's all I got.