JOIN USWhen young John F Kennedy was hospitalised several months for a wartime injury, he received a letter from a 90-year-old, bedridden lady that read, “I have never voted for a Democrat all my life, Mr Kennedy. But I want to vote for at least one before I die; it might stand me in good stead up above. So, I want you to be up. Do not waste away, feeling sorry for yourself, young man! Do all the things you’ve never had time to do.”
“It was tonic to my life,” Kennedy would later say, “I think if I had not received that letter, I would never have got around to writing, “Profiles in courage.” It was the book that focused on the careers of eight Senators whom Kennedy felt had shown great courage and that received the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. And soon after, in 1961, Kennedy would become the youngest American President, who to this day, historians continue to rank among the best-loved presidents in American history. His iconic line, “Ask not what the country can do for you, but what you can do for the country,” is often quoted in political speeches to rekindle patriotic spirits amongst citizens.
Could it be that the tonic which Kennedy received in the form of that letter from an old lady awakened and fortified his dormant spirit as he lay discouraged on a hospital bed? Did those words of encouragement actually strengthen the weak cells of a recuperating patient? Going by the power that are packed in words that encourage and the hope that can be harnessed from them, the answers to these questions can only be in the affirmative. Where encouragement is given, a newfangled hope is created, which is akin to a sunbeam that pierces through the gaps in the drapery of a dark room, dispelling the darkness. An encouraging word in gloomy times has been the launching pad that many despondent men have successfully used to transcend setbacks.
Let us therefore not hesitate to send forth sunbeams to all those in trouble and in need of encouragement. Francis of Assisi, the Italian friar and preacher said it eloquently: “A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”