I want to achieve two goals with this post.

First.

Inaugurate a new series “Learning History By Looking At Statues, Before They’re All Taken Down”.

Second.

I don’t want my kid sister to feel badly about not having a driver’s license.

 

 

Dear Sis –

George Washington was a great man.

He fought the French, he fought the English, he fought the Hessians, and he fought the Whiskey Rebellion.

And despite all that, he isn’t seen as a hostile guy, everybody thinks he’s a great guy.

But.

Like many otherwise nice, intelligent people…

He.  Could.  Not.  Parallel.  Park.

Look closely at this statue.  This happened all the time.

Stuck  on  a  stump.

An unparalleled leader of men, but he just couldn’t parallel park.

“Martha?  Can you give me a lift?  There’s something the matter with this horse again.”

And did he give up?  I do not think so.

 

 

What is carved on the base of this statue?  A quotation from the Marquis de Lafayette:

“Il est un conducteur terrible.     Mais il est toujours un grand homme”

“He is a terrible driver, but still, a great man.”

Washington was a lesson in perseverance, and overcoming all obstacles in your path.  Except granite curbs.  And light poles.  Stray shopping carts, too.

 

 

 

Now, here he’s crossing the Delaware.

Why would you do that in a little boat, standing up, when the river’s full of ice?

Because you cannot get your horse to go around the safety cones, on the bridge to New Jersey.

So you don’t give up, you take the ferry.

You just have to keep trying.  And re-taking the driving test.  I will give you driving lessons over the holidays.

But not with my car.