Our book study of Road to Character by David Brooks continues…today we briefly cover chapters 3, 4, and 5. The main subjects of these chapters Dwight Eisenhower, Dorothy Day, and George Marshall – two Army Generals and human rights activist. The character content deals with “self-conquest”, “struggle”, and “self-mastery.” Again, as I mentioned in my previous overview, Brooks makes many insightful comments and brings in many thoughtful comparisons throughout these chapters. I can only hope to hit the highlights; and I am enjoying the book very much…maybe too much, which is why I am hopelessly slipping behind schedule. But, technically, it’s still July!

Brooks begins chapter 3 (Self-conquest) with an introduction to General Eisenhower’s mother, Ida Stover Eisenhower. She was born in 1862 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia; she lost her mother at age 5 and her father at age 11, given to distant relatives to be raised. She persevered through life, investing in a piano (which she had throughout her life) and her personal education. We meet and get to know Ida, it seems, so we can better understand her son, the future General and U.S. President…personally, I wish the chapter was dedicated to Ida, she seemed like quite a woman! The chapter gives great thought to sin (“the danger of sin, in other words, is that it feeds on itself…”); generosity (“giving becomes cheerful giving because you are so eager to see the things you love prosper and thrive.”); and moderation (“a life filled with a series of balances and proportions of opposing capacities and tendencies, which will hopefully ripen with maturity”). Chapter 3 presents some interesting outcomes to a life filled with stern challenges.

Chapter 4 focuses on the character of struggle and how the struggle of Dorothy Day personifies a life lived quite fully. My notes on this chapter go on and on…and I get to choose between saying far too little or creating a separate blog post, and because this is a book study, I will unfortunately say far too little (so, you should just read the book!). Day had a difficult life, to say the least, and she had an amazing life, thanks for those around her. She struggled through life (as the chapter suggests), but somehow, and not always easily perceived, she came out better than most would or could, even when that “victory” didn’t look pretty. As I have already mentioned, the quotes here would be endless, so I will list just a few: Brooks discusses Day’s early life, her struggle with family and religion (to mention a few struggles) and her religious conversion…regarding her conversion to Roman Catholicism, it was a “dreary, joyless affair, filled with self-criticism and feelings of unworthiness,” so one might think she would leave that behind her, but the daily Eucharist and attending mass grounded her, “these routines created a spiritual center for her life, from the fragmentation of her early life she moved toward integration.” Her “integrated” life was not easier, but more focused and she had a deeper personal sense, giving her strength in her struggles…regarding suffering in her struggles, she discovered “suffering, like love, shatters the illusion of self-mastery,” and “recovering from suffering is not like recovering from a disease. Many people don’t come out healed; they come out different.” This last quote…”they come out different,” hangs in the air for me, and is food for quite a bit of thought and prayer.

Chapter 5 addresses “self-mastery” and we meet a young George Marshall, a boy with seemingly little ability and no future. Young George hears an older brother and his mother discuss his sibling’s displeasure with the possibility of George joining the brother’s college…and George is motivated to excel from that moment forward. An important aspect of George Marshall’s ability to develop his skill of “self-mastery” is that he never seemed to be satisfied with his current self, he was always looking at others to understand how to improve himself, always trying to maintain a life of being better so he could serve others better. Herein lies the big difference with much of what we see today…Marshall wasn’t striving for self-promotion or individual accomplishment, he was striving to become a better person so he could better serve and promote the whole of which he belonged. Brooks connects this behavior to the institution: “by subordinating ourselves to the institutions we inhabit, we become who we are…Institutions guide behavior along certain time-tested lines. By practicing the customs of an institution, we are not alone; we are admitted into a community that transcends time.” Assuming we are members of worthy institutions, this can be a powerful practice; and a practice that helps us not only attain worthy behaviors, but humbly helps us realize we are but part of a long line of history. Brooks also insightfully points out the struggles that Marshall encountered in his life and how his “self-mastery” alienated him from others…leading us to give thought to the earlier point that moderation is an important aspect of any character development.