A letter by John Quincy Adams to his father when he was nine:
“Dear Sir:
I would love to receive letters very well; much better than I love to write them. I make but a poor figure at composition. My head is much too fickle. My thoughts are running after bird’s eggs, play and trifles, until I get vexed with myself. Mamma has a troublesome task to keep me studying. I own I am ashamed of myself. I have but just entered the third volume of Rollin’s History. … I wish, sir, you would give me in wiritng some instructions with regard to the use of my time, and advise me how to proportion my studies and play, and I will keep them by me, and endeavor to follow them. With the present determination of growing better, I am, dear sir, your son,
John Quincy Adams”
The day I read this short letter from a chapter in John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage was a typically slow and lackluster Summer’s day. I toiled away in my air-conditioned room and did nothing but marvel over the fact that I didn’t have anything to do. While I cannot say that I didn’t need that day at all, this letter by a nine year old boy—who obviously was no ordinary fellow—made me look back at my uneventful, uninspiring day, and reflect over my flaws. Although, a little daydreaming and play could lift up your soul
