Enjoyable History April 10, 2024April 10, 2024 I’m in the midst of Jared Cohen’s Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House. A thoroughly engrossing — fun! — way to learn about the increasingly short* history of our fragile democracy. Jefferson (lots I didn’t know) . . . John Quincy Adams (an ineffective president who nearly drowned skinny dipping in the Potomac before dawn one morning, but an amazing Congressman and leader in his later years) . . . Grover Cleveland . . . William Howard Taft . . . Herbert Hoover . . . Jimmy Carter . . . George W. Bush . . . with some life lessons and inspiration thrown in. I need three more power walks at 1.3X speed to finish — and can’t wait. *Relatively speaking. When, at six, I was taught the legend of Washington chopping down a cherry tree (and the importance of honesty) when he was six, our democracy was nearly 30 times as old as I was. Today, it’s barely 3 times as old — and we have an increasingly demented ex-president out on bail running for president who cannot not tell a lie. In case you can help, you know what to do.