Thank You Mr.President

I loved Ronald Reagan.  I thought he was absolutely delightful as a president and after reading the book 'I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan' I love that he was a man completely devoted to his wife.

Reagan's son spoke about how his Dad, the eternal optimist, loved giving the thumbs up and that one day during a Presidential motorcade a protester ran up to the car and flipped him off.  Without batting an eye, the President looked at Ron Jr. and said "You see, son?  It's catching on!"

I love how President Reagan formed a genuine friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev and that friendship is one of the factors attributed to the end of the cold war.  The picture I found is one of him belly laughing at a joke told by Queen Elizabeth.  I like to believe many foreign dignitaries found him a breath of fresh air.

He was nicknamed the Great Communicator and bestowed his gift upon all those lucky enough to be around him.  When his son, Michael, was getting married, the President put pen to paper:

"Dear Mike:

. . . You've heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the "unhappy marrieds" and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it.

Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn't know won't hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three a.m., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame.

There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it . . . Let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life . . . It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn't ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home . . .

Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.

Love,
Dad

P.S. You'll never get in trouble if you say "I love you" at least once a day."

He wrote love letters to Nancy all through their marriage, love letters she cherished long after his memory had faded; he was an old fashioned romantic.  I love that he was such a gifted writer. 

In one of his last public addresses he wrote about heading into the 'sunset of his life' and even though he was so very gently telling us he had Alzheimers disease, the message was one of hope and gratitude and love of country.  How very lucky I feel for having been a witness to his graciousness and good humor.