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

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HYDE PARK, Friday—Every year I tell you how beautiful the purple loosestrife is along the sides of our brook. I do not think it is as brilliant this year as in previous years, but nevertheless its reflection in the water is one of my great joys.

An excited little voice called me last evening just at sundown. It was little Chris, and he was leaning out of a second-floor window calling loudly:

“Grandmere, come quickly. There are two cranes on this side of the brook, but only one is white.”

When the big white crane takes off and flies across to the big bush, which is on the side of the brook channel where it becomes very narrow, it is really a beautiful sight. And lately we have added a whole family of wild ducks, which have made themselves quite at home. So, it appears that not far away we must have some wild rice, but I haven't been able to find it yet.

* * *

As I walked the dogs in the woods yesterday, one of the little six-year-old boys walked with me. And I began to tell him about the great pine woods which lay just behind the birches and which grow right down to the water's edge, with a deep bed of pine needles under the dark green trees. In that wood it is always dark because the sun can't get through, so you can make-believe almost anything.

The little boy looked up at me and said:

“Can we have a tent there next year and play we are Indians?”

I agreed that that would be wonderful, but suggested that the mosquitoes would be bad, unless you also could play that, being Indians, the mosquitoes wouldn't bite. At that he looked a little dubious because he had been flourishing a branch during our walk and complaining bitterly about the mosquitoes. The return to nature for our generation isn't as easy as one might think.

* * *

I am delighted that bill authorizing the loan for construction of the United Nations headquarters in New York has been signed and that activity will go ahead full speed on a permanent home for the U.N..

In his periodic report, Secretary-General Trygve Lie did not minimize the difficulties that had to be faced, and I think this foreshadows a very interesting General Assembly meeting in September.

It may well be that when the nations come together again they may be able to iron out some of the thorny questions still plaguing them. I have a feeling that if these questions could be dealt with honestly and courageously, we might make some steps forward. I don't look for complete solutions to these perplexing problems, even a few points straining relations between Eastern and Western Europe could be arbitrated it would help.

I don't think we need to feel hopeless about peace in the world when all the great nations are saying that they want peace—no matter how much their acts belie their words. Talk, however, will not always preserve peace. There has to be concrete evidence of willingness to cooperate and steps must be taken in the direction of conciliation.

That is what I hope will happen when the United Nations General Assembly meets next month.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1948, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC., REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]
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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 14, 1948

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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