Life Secrets from Former President Jimmy Carter

Bottom Line Personal ^ | December 1, 2002 Reprinted 8/10/03 | Some Georgia Peanut Farmer

[buzzyboop]

Jimmy Carter is 78 -- and still going strong. Last October, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts." One of those efforts included visiting Fidel Castro earlier this year to try to end Cuba's 45-year estrangement from the US.

Four years ago, Bottom Line interviewed President Carter on the virtues of aging. What he had to say then is just as relevant and inspiring now...

During a television interview, Barbara Walters asked, "Mr. President, you have had a number of exciting and challenging careers. What have been your best years?" My answer: "Now is the best time of all."

These have been the best years for Rosalynn and me. We've been through severe tests since I left the White House. We have struggled to find the best way to retain our self-confidence, evolve an interesting and challenging life and build better relations with other people.

As we've grown older, the results have been surprisingly good. Here's what we have learned about the virtues of aging that can make the older years the best time of all for you.

[buzzyboop]

What a howl!! As I read through this, I couldn't help how in many ways, this parallels BillyJeff and HilLiary. Try it. Substitute the Klintoons for the Carters in this. Draw your own conclusions.

[TigersEye]

I was dominant when we were a young married couple. That has changed. The sharper differences have faded during the 56 years Rosalynn and I have spent together. We each have had to accommodate the preferences of the other.

Translation: "When I was younger I was too busy kowtowing to the Kremlin to pay any attention to my wife. Now that Ros has me all to herself I see that anyone can pussywhip me."

[TigersEye]

Rosalynn has worked at my interests -- and has become a good tennis player and an excellent fly fisher. She runs with me several times a week and climbs mountains with me. Her interest in business, politics and global activities now equals mine.

Translation: "After I was dumb enough to open my mouth in Playboy Rosalyn decided to put me on a very short leash. She regularly defeats me on my own ground in a humiliating way which assures that I won't be attractive to other women."

[Agnes Heep]

Rosalynn has worked at my interests -- and has become a good tennis player and an excellent fly fisher.

Just whose fly has she been fishing in?

[Severa]

Frighteningly enough, the last Seawolf class submarine is due to be launched next summer, the USS Jimmy Carter...

[freekitty]

Just don't let Carter, under any circumstances, go to North Korea.