Jimmy Carter and Friends: Hope for Today's Malaise
We tend to shower praise on people who “fit in,” but it’s more instructive to appreciate folks who are unique—which is everyone. Former President Jimmy Carter has blazed new trails, and The Washington Post on June 22 reminded us that he’s three months away from being unusual again—his 100th birthday.
It’s timely to pay tribute to Carter now because it takes the whole book of one’s life, not the first or last chapter alone, to establish a unique legacy. In Carter’s case, he has become exceptional step-by-step, piecing together his special set of endeavors, values, and relationships in a changing world.
He has been a farm-owner, Navy submariner, governor, president, humanitarian, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and now a hospice patient.
We learn much by cherishing people’s entire lives as they unfold, intertwine, and move forward, not merely judging one aspect or awaiting a definitive obituary.
Carter has sought to influence the whole world and to let the whole world influence him. We can illustrate this by remembering a unique friendship he formed. Twenty years ago, on June 28, 2004, he delivered the eulogy at a 13-year-old’s funeral service.
A shared passion for peacemaking placed Carter in contact with Mattie J.T. Stepanek a few years earlier. The Make-a-Wish Foundation inquired whether Carter could visit Mattie, who had asked to meet his hero. Doctors deemed Mattie’s death imminent.
Suffering from a particularly cruel form of muscular dystrophy (MD), he had known for a while that each day could be his last. His similarly afflicted siblings had died. But he had plunged into a vigorous existence filled with faith and purpose—to be a kid while building a legacy.
He wanted to be remembered as “a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played.”
Raised by a Catholic mother who is alive today facing a less corruptive form of mitochondrial disease, Mattie spent time in prayer and received insights he called “heartsongs.”
These thoughts affirmed for him every person’s distinctive worth and mission, and God’s unifying love, prompting Mattie to write poems. His simple eloquence yielded a 2002 book, Heartsongs, plus six other New York Times best-sellers during a four-year span. (Two were published posthumously.)
Mattie gained media attention, sharing hopes of peaceful human flourishing and personal striving—a beacon of both childlike wonder and understanding deepened by his painful disability.
Meanwhile, his local Maryland parish and the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, made it possible for him to receive the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation by age 8. He became a parish catechist, teaching the faith to sixth-graders.
His growth in knowledge, reason, and faith was swift, as told by his mom, Dr. Jeni Stepanek, who was interviewed recently on EWTN. She quoted his motto: “Think gently, speak gently, live gently.”
His buoyant spirit lifted up countless adults, leading to TV appearances with super-influencer Oprah Winfrey and MD celebrity-fundraiser par excellence Jerry Lewis. (See Lewis and Mattie together in this video at about the 1-hour mark.)
President Carter did indeed visit Mattie. The boy had singled out Carter as a peacemaking paradigm. Jimmy and Mattie began to correspond, exchanging many thoughts, spiritual musings, and plans for the future.
Of course, this ended in 2004 when the doctors’ prognosis eventually proved correct. Carter contributed two sets of remarks to the final collection of Mattie’s poetry and prose, a book titled Just Peace: A Message of Hope, published two years later.
The former president wrote a foreword, plus closing notes whimsically called a “forthword.” Even the word was unconventional. It may have been a neologism sparked by Mattie’s creativity. Internet search engines still today do not recognize it. Such a clever term should have spawned more copycats!
Carter’s implication was that Mattie had put his finger on a starting point from which young and old alike could go forth on pilgrimages of peace.
He wrote that the boy “has been able to comprehend his own inner feelings, to extrapolate them with a unique resonance for the understanding of other people, and to embrace in his brilliant mind the challenges and opportunities of the entire world.”
But the most quotable part of the forthword was Carter’s observation that his friend was “the most remarkable person I have ever known.”
The former president made a video in 2014 repeating that assessment. He honored Mattie’s courageous exploration of humanity as an amalgam of wisdom he had not seen in any world leader.
A message about lifespans and legacies is worth considering in civil society and public affairs today. No specific level of experience or age, from teen to senior citizen, can guarantee leadership that resonates with reality. We need to stay alert for out-of-the-ordinary inspirations whose seeds are sown gradually, in partnership with others, in dialogue with God and the world.
The unscheduled synchronicity and synergy of lives—including our own—are hints that God is working at the intersections of one-of-a-kind gifts. As Scripture (1 Kings 19:12) suggests, He is present in the quiet breeze, not in a political windstorm or an individual’s bluff and bluster.
When the time comes for Jimmy Carter’s obituary to be published, we would be foolish to read his life only as random headlines. The best role models boldly surf a current of connectedness which flows where it will, in the right direction for the right duration.
Such paths will be roller coasters. Carter’s one-term presidency was marked by his promise of truthfulness amid a full measure of tumults and errors. Later, he served on crucial diplomatic missions and worked to monitor democracies’ free and fair elections, but he was also called antisemitic for his criticism of Israeli policies.
Pundits mocked this compassionate evangelical Christian for his 1979 “malaise speech,” in which he coached Americans to overcome their “crisis of confidence.” He spoke prophetically:
“We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.”
The June 27, 2024, debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump affirmed Carter’s prediction of disabled governance.
A polarized populace witnessed that societal structures and party machines which once generated unifying leaders are now producing shadows of statesmanship who merely “fit in” and hardly bring us solace. Imaginative, big-picture ideas have morphed into performative survival strategies. Malaise has decayed into malice.
Upon Carter’s death, presidents of the past and present will gather at ceremonies to remember him, prompting millions to review the paths we’ve taken together. Sadly, we may see we’re stuck in ruts of narcissism and relativism. Perhaps too few people have stepped forward to share fresh, authentic, virtuous messages, or to respond to them when recognized.
An extra dose of quotes from the former president will help us recall, and maybe recapture, his heartsongs. This founder of The Carter Center and long-time partner with Habitat for Humanity has said he wants to be known for “waging peace” and championing human dignity.
His “tough love” for our nation carries the power to stir and strengthen us: “America did not invent human rights,” he said. “In a very real sense, human rights invented America.”
He wants us to be instruments of those rights: “To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others.” But it all must start with our own initiative, enabled by higher truths.
Carter, like his young friend Mattie, explained he was driven by a relationship with God. He has said, “My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have, to try to make a difference.”
People inspired by Mattie’s similar determination have formed the Mattie J.T. Stepanek Foundation, which provides resources for the teaching of peace studies. A variety of activities named for him continue in various locales to spread the message, “just peace.”
There is also a Mattie J.T. Stepanek Guild, which is gathering information on how this young humanitarian lived and how he inspired others. As they are wont to do, some Catholics are thinking of sainthood as the ultimate legacy—not something to capture and categorize in an obituary, but a reality with which we can always interact.
The guild must compile documentation to present for archdiocesan review, leading to a “cause for canonization.” That would await Rome’s scrutiny and papal review.
Like all worthy pursuits, this will take time. It’s an opportunity for regenerating uniquely dynamic hearts and minds that can lead us beyond 2024. Fortunately, the remarkable lifespan we desire—for Mattie, for his friend Jimmy, and for all of us—is unlimited. Carter is here to tell us: Go forth.
Video from the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
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