FDR: Meeting on the High Seas

Every public person wishes to escape “privately” from time to time.

Caveat:

This does not mean to “hide” anything salacious, criminal or embarrassing. It may only mean to have the personal freedom to enjoy a good book, or a quiet dinner, or singing a loud ‘happy birthday’ at a family gathering. Without intrusive eyes and flapping lips.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Dissembler

Long before FDR was crippled by polio and truly curtailed from many activities he long enjoyed, he was essentially a private fellow. His innermost thoughts, public and private, and especially his feelings, were his and his alone.

As an only child, surrounded by adults, with few opportunities to pal around with age peers, he began to zealously guard his private world, especially from his doting mother. When his elderly father had a heart attack, mother and son conspired to withhold anything that might upset Mister James and…