1 - 5 - 18 US Grant and Drawing Inspiration from Imperfect People

I listened to an Art of Manliness podcast this morning that I really enjoyed [ Link to Podcast on Soundcloud (52 minutes) ]. Brett interviewed Ron Chernow, the author of Hamilton, the biography that inspired the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, about his new book Grant.

It was very interesting, and inspiring to me, to hear about Grant’s heroics, precisely because he’s not typically presented as much of a hero. He’s widely portrayed as a drunkard, which is somewhat fair, and a butcher, less fair, yet he showcased some incredibly strong personality traits throughout his life.

His courage in the Mexican-American war, as exemplified by the story of him riding on the side of his horse to go fetch ammunition, was a precursor to the action in his life that really struck me and won me over. I think most people know Grant died penniless, what I didn’t know was that this was because of a Ponzi scheme, a continuation of Grant’s ill fortune in financial matters.

Shortly after losing his money he’s diagnosed with cancer of the throat and mouth, apparently a very painful and horrible way to die, especially in the 19^th century. I think most of us would give up on life at that point. I’m sure looking back he could have seen all the good he’d done, the fame he’d achieved, and had been satisfied to die, even if he went out at the bottom rather than on top. But his last major act followed this idea of duty that had (ostensibly) motivated him his whole life.

Despite his own personal distaste for memoirs, he realized that to support his wife ,especially after his death, writing his own was the most reasonable course of action. Now, I guess this is only a really unselfish action if you one, believe the notion that he personally disliked memoirs and never wanted to write one, and two, remember that he died shortly after finishing the manuscript. Not that he could have much enjoyed the money it generated in his state of disease.

It’s a very interesting question to me, how do you go out? What’s your last act? When you know that you’ll enjoy none of the good that you generate by your efforts, what do you do?

Because it’s an entirely different question to struggle through a difficult task if you know you’ll be rewarded. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, suffer through med school or basic training or whatever rigorous ordeal they must to achieve their goals. But how many people are willing to put it all on the line, give it their all through the pain and frustration, without any hope of reward for their efforts?

That’s why it was that bit of the story that won me over. Because for all his talk of duty before, so much as he said that was what motivated him, we can’t know up until this event what he was really made of. Nearly every successful war leader, at least since the dawn of nationalism if not earlier, has claimed to have been motivated by patriotism, so it’s no surprise Grant would claim the same thing during his professional rise and terms as chief-in-command and chief executive.

So I guess you couldn’t know whether he felt that duty and loyalty to his nation in particular. But surely this last story illustrates that inside of him there was some sense of duty, of responsibility.

Or he was just trying to protect and enlarge his legacy, as famous men supposedly never die. I suppose I’d have to research for years, certainly at least read his memoirs, to develop a real opinion between the two. For now, I’ll settle for ignorant optimism, where I can’t see over the fence, I’ll just assume the grass is green.

I fully admit that it’s ignorant but what are the alternatives? Know fully about everything we wish to feel anything about? Well, that’s first off impossible but also unnecessarily restrictive. You’ll never know the people you love the deepest fully, but you’d be a fool to restrain that love because you can’t know them. So knowledge, especially in questions that aren’t practically important like my opinion of a famous dead man, isn’t really a practical option.

That leaves ignorant pessimism. I’ll note that my optimism is not Pollyanna-ism but a measured and gracious estimation of this man’s character. That’s not optimism, that’s naïvete.

But why would we want ignorant pessimism? Isn’t that the most boring, lifeless way to live life? I feel like I don’t even need to argue against it because it’s the choice to feel bad for the sake of feeling bad. You could be drawing some inspiration from his story, even with the knowledge that he’s not the greatest guy in the world, but you’re choosing to dwell on all the failings and disappointments. Why?