With words, “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of world: ask not what American will do for you, but what together we can do for freedom of man,” John F. Kennedy was sworn in as 35th president of US. And arguably, no one could move us way JFK could. He understood power of words and of poetry. For his inauguration, he asked Robert Frost, US poet, to read a poem.

Frost wrote a poem called “Dedication,” for inauguration but when he went to podium on that cold January day, snow blinded him and, thinking quickly, he recited “The Gift Outright” instead, something he knew by heart.

Sara G. remembers “The Inauguration was on a freezing day, whole northeastern coast was snowed in. As an 11 year old living in New England, we didn’t have school that day because of snow, and I remember watching inauguration on television.” Frost was 86 at time.

In “Dedication,” Frost wrote, “Summoning artists to participate /In august occasions of state/Seems something for us all to celebrate./ This day is for my cause a day of days,/And his be poetry’s old-fashioned praise/Who was first to think of such a thing.”

To see his originals, go here: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_frost_1_e.html , and here: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_frost_3_e.html .

I met an exceptional American man in Athens in my younger years. He had a beautiful and gentle French girlfriend, and everyone was always complimenting him and telling him how "lucky" he was. His usual reply was something to effect of "Lucky or unlucky is hard for me to say, as this is only one small moment in my whole life. But I will tell you this, at this moment, I am very definitely enjoying myself and feeling thankful."

Shortly after meeting him he was thrown in jail in Greece, which in those days was run by a brutal military dictator. All his friends sat around in Athens talking about how "unlucky" he was, since police threw him in jail with no real evidence. When I visited him and told him his friends felt terrible about his bad luck he smiled warmly and said, "Lucky or unlucky is hard for me to say. But I am sure I will have a great story to tell some day! And for this I am thankful."

After several years in jail he was released, and he returned to States. He was traveling along coast roads of California, when he met a lovely woman in a roadside cafe, and began to flirt with her. Unbeknownst to my friend, woman had a boyfriend who belonged to a gang, and boyfriend soon appeared with his buddies and became furious. In order to "teach my friend a lesson" they proceeded to throw him off side of road, and down rocky expanse leading to ocean some one hundred feet below. They left him for dead.