These words from President Trump stood out to me during his farewell before boarding Air Force One this morning. Among other things, he addressed the crowd (and viewers watching on TV) saying, “Have a good life.” It reminds me a few things, in spite of what liberal NBC said afterwards, Savannah Guthrie repeating the encouragement as “Have a nice life,” not nearly the meaning I deducted from what he said. “Nice” and “good” are worlds apart, because you can do good, you be good. That has an element of charity to it, go into the world and do good. “Nice” just means have a pleasant life; more of an inward focus.
When he said this line, it reminded me of a friend of mine that brought her new boyfriend to a party and introduced him to us (her friends). Long story short, the night was fine and at the end when we were saying our goodbyes to each other, I said to her boyfriend, “Have a nice life,” with the meaning being I didn’t know when (or if) I would see him again. It was a farewell in case it was a final farewell. He and I still joke about this to this day because my friend married him.
It also reminded me of the sentiment shared by Mr. Feeny on “Boy Meets World.” When he was saying goodbye to Cory and the gang, he said:
“Believe in yourselves. Dream. Try. Do good.”
Topanga: “Don’t you mean ‘do well’?”
“No, I mean ‘do good’.”
Sidenote: If Mr. Feeny would’ve run for President, he would’ve had my vote 🙂
There are just a few more hours left of the Trump presidency and surely Biden has moved all his stuff into the White House by now. As Donald Trump wrapped up his goodbyes to the nation, he also said something to the affect of returning to the spotlight, so only time will tell what that could mean.
For now, though, goodbye and thank you Mr. President for the good work you did for our country. May the next administration “do good,” too.
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 