The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

      

HYDE PARK, Thursday—On this New Year's Day we ought to think about our resolutions for the new year.

One of my very firmest resolutions was that I would have hours of leisure in these coming months but, as I look at my calendar for January and February, it seems to have filled up so rapidly that I don't think I am going to have the leisure hours I had counted on.

Oh, well! Perhaps I wouldn't like them if I had them, so the best New Year's resolution is to be content with whatever comes and to face cheerfully a world in which there will undoubtedly be no security and a great deal of uncertainty for months to come, if not for years.

We older ones may not have to face the years of insecurity for too long. But if we do not face them with serenity while we are here, it will certainly make it harder for the younger generation.

One New Year's resolve is quite definite in my mind: I am going to have time to see more of my friends. If one spends too much time meeting the demands of people whom one knows slightly or not at all, one does not have time left for the people one really cares about. That is a lesson I should have learned years ago, but now I am really going to struggle to remember it.

On Sunday the 28th I went to one of the nicest dinners I have ever attended. It was given by the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. in honor of the Honorable Herbert H. Lehman, who was awarded a gold medal of merit and a very fine citation. The latter states so well what Senator Lehman stands for in our community and in the U.S. that I would like to quote from it, as follows:

“...exceptional contributions to the welfare and security of the United States and the advancement of mankind's struggle for freedom and dignity. Senator Lehman's long and eminent career of high public service has been marked by a deep-laid awareness of the needs of both the present and the future. He has shown a profound understanding of humanity's hopes and aspirations. As Governor of New York, as Director-General of the United States Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and as United States Senator, he has worked untiringly and selflessly for peace, freedom and abundance for his fellow citizens and for all men. Patriot and humanitarian, he has fought the good fight with undaunted courage and unblemished integrity, standing always for the cause of right.”

Citations do not always portray with exactitude the qualities that have led to a man's success, but in this case all that the citation said was the truth. It may well serve to point up for future generations the qualities that make men serve well their country and the world.

On Tuesday I went to Philadelphia to attend in the afternoon a tea given by the City Council and in the evening the annual meeting of the Philadelphia Cotillion Society.

On New Year's Eve I returned to Hyde Park and so today I can think calmly of the year to come in my own surroundings, with the peace and quiet of the countryside all about me.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1953, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]
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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 2, 1953

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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