The Good Ending

I read recently that Ted Kennedy wanted a good ending- a worthy aspiration for all of us.

I judge a book, fiction or nonfiction, by the strength of what it teaches me. And so many years ago when I read Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, it soared to the top of my favorites list based on Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind. Covey taught personal vision by picturing the words expressed by significant others at one's funeral. What a powerful, potentially life changing vision: to live our lives so that the ending is good! This mindset would become the road map for a life of personal choices determined by integrity.

Kennedy was no saint, and some would argue that family connections and wealth were the secrets to his success. Family connections and/or wealth often do pave the golden path. Examples of individuals given unwarranted positions of authority through this pathway quickly come to my mind (just from my experience in working in our local school system). The number of these individuals in politics, which relies on connections and of necessity wealth, must be staggering. And so an assumption that Kennedy's success was owed to family and wealth would not be a stretch.

Those who viewed his funeral service witnessed the unravelling of this assumption. In his life Kennedy erred as humans often do, and greater than most of us ever will. He reached a turning point later in life when he publicly admitted his past mistakes and poor personal choices. In a touching and heartwarming eulogy his namesake, Edward Kennedy, Jr., said that his father believed in redemption. His father's path to redemption began with a public acknowledgement of personal failure and ended in eulogies depicting a man of integrity from both his sons and President Obama. Others who had gathered to remember him nodded assent.

I don't know if Senator Kennedy had read Covey's Seven Habits, but he got his good ending.