The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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HYDE PARK, Monday—There was a story in Sunday's paper that I thought was a good lesson for us. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who had just arrived in our country, was promptly questioned about the Dean of Canterbury—the "Red dean" who, when on a Soviet-sponsored tour of Red China, decided he had been shown proof of the use of germ warfare in Korea. When the latter returned to England and said as much he caused a certain excitement in the House of Commons, but nowhere near as much excitement as it would have caused in our Congress. The Archbishop of Canterbury ended the interview by saying that he hoped we would forget about the dean as quickly as possible. That sounded like very sensible advice.

We certainly can do nothing about him. We think he is completely mistaken in all of his ideas, but we can't prevent his having them. Why we go on making him more and more important by taking note of all he says and does I have never been able to understand. I have always remembered something that was said to me once by a very successful radio singer:

"I like to be praised," she said, "but I'd far rather have people say nasty things about me than have them say nothing at all. The one dangerous thing is that the public will forget you if you are not mentioned one way or the other all the time."

She was right and I have tried to remember her philosophy ever since.

Our whole household now centers around the new Scottie puppy, "Mr. Duffy." He was sent me by Bernard and Susanne Solomon, of Toledo, Ohio, some time ago, but a friend of mine agreed to give him some training first. Now, at three and a half months old, he is quite well trained and has a remarkable personality. He arrived to stay on Saturday morning and not only our household but my son's household has become a slave to Mr. Duffy. The children all want to take him out on a leash.

The only one who has not decided how he feels about him as yet is Tamas. Tamas behaves exactly the way Fala did when Tamas was a puppy. Tamas gets tired of so much playfulness and a gentle snap will send the puppy flying off to the other side of the enclosure. Very soon Mr. Duffy will learn that when an older dog wishes to be left alone, it is wise to leave him alone.

However, Mr. Duffy has one playmate who is simply enchanted to find someone to run and play as much as she wishes. This little female Scotty is only a few months older and belongs to our next nearest neighbor. The two dogs have already had some wonderful playtimes together.

Funny how quickly a little dog takes his place in the house. The whole household adores him, and I am sure he is going to be a very fine little dog.

There was a nice quotation in one of our Sunday newspaper magazines. It read:

“Big men become big by doing what they don't want to do when they don't want to do it.”

A good many people could profit by that little maxim, and instead of feeling sorry for themselves when circumstances forced them to live up to it, they could just decide that this is the way to grow.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1952, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 19, 1952

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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