David needs no introduction but will get one anyway. Serving as the oped columnist for the New York Times which she does over a dozen years producing two columns every week ganda commentator who on npr and nbc meet the press. He previously served as a reporter was so wild service upon dash a wire service have an occasional movie critic and oped editor for the wall street journal and also to the Weekly Standard for the atlantic and a newsweek. The best selling author includes on paradise striving of the third book the socially animal is then york times number one best seller the work he is discussing tonight is already number one on the amazon hardcover. [applause] he teaches at yale responding tonight is the nationally syndicated columnist is the author of heroic conservatism the religion of their politics is serving as a Senior Adviser dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty of preventable diseases working at the that we did their previously served as a senior fellow at counsel Foreign Relations and a Senior Editor of u. S. News and world report with Strategic Planning and as the chief speechwriter at the conclusion to provide a response that we will go to audience questions will come. [applause] ted years ago of a summer afternoon or evening we had a driveway to the side i concede the backyard my kids were 12, nine, five they were kicking the ball into the air chasing across the yard there laughing and giggling as the ball goes through the air and the sun came down through the trees so i saw them rolling on top of beecher other and unexpected beautiful sight indigested it them for a few minutes. Is a moment when life and time is suspended and you get a sense of feeling of overwhelming regret. What did i do to deserve this if you have the duty to you feel you have not earned. That sense creates a strange desire with the normal ground of everyday life in then to be exposed to something deep inside your you want to be worthy of what you have been given we know that word you can get around to different people. I had it at that moment i remember seeing people as i was at the American EnterpriseInstitute Last summer seated next to the dali lama. He laughs at unusual moments and then you want to laugh back begin to feel comfortable i asked him to you have any candy in your bag and he pulled out some stuff but basically it is everything from the firstclass cabin with a blindfold he had that but when you are a round that and i hope to regress learn to read and it could do years and for never walked into the room and to feel a wave of good news indeed refill valued and important and you want to feel worthy but i dont have that anyone to beat worthier of that. But i experienced another undeserved love. Friends in the room said of gaudily exemplified a way to be in the world from times of need and a vulnerability pete and michael who have come forward in times of struggle with support and a council to last cent young carriers and wiser in age to be a close friend with her son peter who is out there and i see barb so this is like a coming home but also feeling these people have helped me more than i deserve. We were surrounded by that the book is a product of that type of searching and it starts with the distinction the resonator virtues of the marketplace and what they say about us after we are dead if we are capable of deep love we all know that you received version especially in washington we are clear on the career than how to deserve a good eulogy. That was true of me. Of blood britain 1965 call below the man of faith so they looked at genesis that stands for the two sides of our nature. Adam one and adam to. The one that created things but the eternal adam is adam 2 with the right or wrong to do good adam 1 western copper the world adam 2 was to obey the world and why we are ultimately hear hear. So to explain the to adam in confrontation with each other and relive it a culture that supports adam 1 and ignores adam 2 but adam 1 and 86 operate by a different logic adam 1 is economic adam 2 is the inverse logic that is moral and not economic per you have to give to receive in surrender to have strength within yourself all to lead to success witches pride or humility and learning and you have to lose yourself to find yourself. So you have to balance these two things. Relive in a culture where the noise of fast communication drowns out the still silent voice inside. The of meritocracy to create a highlight reel. One that is prominent today that we need to trust the golden figure. So trust yourself and the Gallup Organization had day poll question are you a very important person . They said yes. Dasa same question again 2005 it was 80 . [laughter] they have the narcissism test that i will read a bunch of statements like i like to be the center of attention and i find it easy to manipulate people. Id like to look at my body. My friends are extraordinary the scores have gone up 30 in the last 20 years also at increased desire for fame. Highschool students harassed would you rather be us celebrity personal assistant Justin Beaver personal assistant or president of harvard . Of course, they said Justin Bieber but to be fair i ask the president of harvard and she said Justin Beavers assistant as well. [laughter] College Students harassed fame or sex and they chose the life of fame so i go to College Campuses same kind of famous. [laughter] but if you were only adam 1 you turn into a shrewd and all. That is all you have with lack of quality youre not able to speak youre not really attached to things that are the most important in life that wed you receive the guest but you settle for mediocrity. Tsa i am not hurting anybody but it opens up between your actual self and your desire i spent four years to figure out that life that sense of not being worthy of my guests a gift i have received. How are you were the . Reading and writing a book cannot get you there but it is a road map. I have an email from a veterinarian only so much could be achieved in words. It is the smallest part of what they give the totality of their life the way they go about it is what is transmitted. Perfected over lifetimes of effort set in motion by another person hidden from their recipient from time. Life is much bigger than we think cause and effect to become better so it is the least of that so i was looking for people and for friends. So to serve as examples one of those was i now eisenhower born 1862 her mom died when she was i father died richet was the road to character and became the indentured servant when her family was out for a picnic she just split got herself into vice call got a caravan trade to kansas got herself into university married David Eisenhower had six sons one was a way to eisenhower. Then she says youre too young he had a temper tantrum he punched the trees so hard you rub the skin of his knuckles. She sent him to his room she cannot to his room and recited a first he who conquers his own soul is greater than those who take on the city. Decades later eisenhower said that was the most important conversation of his life because it showed he had a weakness within himself we think of him as country club but that was the fate he was full of anger but he addressed his sin over the course of his life at night he would lie awake Throat Infection in spaking Blood Pressure in drinking but i cannot let temper bbn he developed distractions. When they were stupid he retake the people he hated write their name on a piece of paper over and over and rip it up to throw away. Och they made the opponents worth the hot where the event is the importance to locate those activities to which those that you are ashamed of and understanding that you have a course. Senator johnson was born 79 barely survived the ordeal of birth handed over to a wet nurse whose milk infected him with tuberculosis he went blind and deaf and they had surgery they left open the wound for six years to believe him and he developed a cd and threats syndrome he failed as a student at age 30 he was radically wretched suicide attempts with a very unsuccessful life out of that suffering there is nothing intrinsically noble about suffering but it drags you deeper into yourself to remind you youre not free thought you were in cars and to the basement of your soul and the cavity below. Was suffering created in johnson to think globally of yourself but my favorite definition of humility is radical self awareness from a distance and johnson achieve that and walked to london and started to write. He wrote his way to goodness just by taking each of his weaknesses to write about them. He could not control his own body but he needed to control his mind to acre in the reality of truth he rightabout envy and radical curiosity there is a river in oxford people were drowning he jumped in to see what it was like. His subjects were the things that plagued him to grab them each by the hand to become a scattered and disorganize person that created an amazing work ethic the French Academy took 40 scholars and 15 years to write the first dictionary and he didnt always clerks in eight years. He was given a lectureship unfortunately his friend did not know lost he had to write the lectures he wrote 1600 pages per hour. Creating 378,000 words his hunger to express between adam from the prostitutes slaves 13 People Living with them at a time it was all created out of intellectual honesty. That natalie nothing can fill up johnson is dead to with the next best there is nobody. So from johnson we learn how to turn suffering into self understanding with the intellectual effort can lead to moral goodness. One is dorothy day. Share was the person who could not just read a novel but inhabited it to become like the characters for unfortunately she read a lot [laughter] she took to drinking and carousing to live in poverty and sleep around abortions and suicide attempts with a very disorganized life. She was arrested but she took that as a judgment on her life as of criticism. She cannot get out of it. She had a child out of wedlock. She decided of all the books of child childbirth were written by men. She wrote 40 minutes after giving birth it was very dramatic with a beautiful scene as i have written the most beautiful painting i cannot feel that way more replace the child in my arms. So have love and joy i often felt after the birth of my child this came to need to worship and the door. That adoration when you have loved it is always in motion a goes to a child then spreads outward she formed communes homeless shelters living and serving up for to embrace poverty. Of love that led out into the committee and to teach the value of self criticism and community. This is to you learn from. The fourth one is george eliot who had a very bad childhood. Not much love from her mother therefore you emotionally needy and fell in love with every guy she encountered married or not. Available or not. 70 years old or 50 years old. In love. She fell in love with Herbert Spencer was intellectual equal. 1852 at age 32 she wrote him a letter. She is begging him to marry her you will not notice me i will not be around. [laughter] but then she finishes i suppose nobleman before has ever written such a letter as this but i am not ashamed because i am worthy of your respect and tenderness whenever men or women might think of me. There comes a certain point in peoples lives they dont see that affirmation or criticism they have day internal criteria and she achieved that. It did not work out with spencer but she met george who was legally married although his wife was a strange having children with another man. It had gone she would be labeled the adulteress. She said well i face social ostracism . So ben she said i have counted the cost of the step without irritation or bitterness denunciation by all my friends the person i have attached myself he is worthy of the sacrifice real the anxiety is he should be rightly judged. So she teaches us the power of love first it humbles us to remind is your not in control of their own mind and second with the soft parts of character and third it reminds us the riches are an others it elevates the distinction between giving and receiving. Those are the romanticized ones. [laughter] eliot had that but also a second love for those who are scarred by life and whose love is not as poetic and more local. It is about knowing your own weaknesses my friend describe this in no wedding toast this second of its private and particular the object is the specificity of this man and that woman the distinctiveness of the spirit and flesh the above first deep and wide the grass to the region in the day is done in the lights are out there is only the other part be other mind the other face to meet the demons are the angels but it does not matter when one consents to very consent to beecher the norwichs ominous prospect so of the impression to call for forgiveness that would be required we may not be idle. That is a very beautiful passage. They stayed together for years to suggest she comes back a week later with a short story he starts crying he becomes her agent and publicist and editor and counselor he gets up early to cut out the newspaper articles that mention her. [laughter] so it is a moral occasion. These are the things that lead to a depth of character and to get them you have to step outside the culture of what celebrates itself to embrace the alternative culture that many are familiar with that says we dont live for happiness but were from holiness and goodness we can get that from the struggle and divided from those who are in doubt and the struggle against their own weakness not the extra rows struggle for success. Q remedy is the greatest virtue and pride is that daily life the characters built over confrontation with yourself we all require assistance from the outside from family or friends or institutions provoked i was thinking their character was the figure of self discipline but then i realize nobody could do it outside the character is the strength of your commitment. To settle philosophy of unconditional love. I wrote on a piece of paper a life remembered and i thought about how to describe my life. I went over the key moments of my life and then she said, and i thought my moments and i thought of the lord and his visits to us those many centuries ago and i was grateful to have had him on my mind all that time. And that feeling of gratitude and peace that atomized down before adam too. He was born in algeria and 354th. Monica lewinsky helicopter mom who need all helicopter mobs. [laughter] she had a devouring love for her son. She wanted to know what kind of christian he was in when he left africa to go to italy she screamed at the shore when he was going away. He says the sounds of the birds were housed in the sounds of the trees were hushed and the sound of the air was hushed at the sound of our voices was hushed and the sounds of our hearts were hushed and you get the sense of silence. And thats something we are looking for and that is the end of the road to death. So i introduce you to these friends and i guarantee you just doing the book isnt enough. Just writing it and just reading it doesnt make it better but it does point a path and it points a path to each other were stumbling forward to each other thinking what are my chief sends in how did i do on though . Who can i rely on . Who can i trust and ultimately who can i surround myself with who loves me more than i do so thanks very much. [applause] [applause] in the road to character david rexx wonders if the life of achievement has resulted in human excellence. Worries about turning into something less impressive than he hoped and muses on the eulogy virtues and he says to save his soul. The technical literary term for this is a midlife crisis. [laughter] most of us just buy a convertible. David typically has produced a book that could be an important cultural turning point a book that seems not just the composition but a culmination of something important. It worked this rich defies easy summary. Part of the book is an exercise in cultural criticism expressed in a creative choice of graphical examples. David prefers what he calls heroes of renunciation, a Diverse Group consisting of men and women and minorities and whites, and a people and straight aristocratic and bluecollar. Generally shaped by tragedy and driven to make unsparing demands on themselves. They stand in contrast to ascendant forms of self trust selflove, selfexpression selfesteem and self actualization. The choice is clear. Choose unitas that you and your descendents may live. Or maybe its not quite so simple. As david recognizes american character is a composite and alloy of moral realism and moral romanticism. The eisenhower is a National Type of so were patton and macarthur. He even joe dimaggio after all married marilyn monroe. A current problem is a massive overcorrection the advance of careerism, consumerism woodstock expressiveness at the expense of the inner struggle and the inner life. The literary achievement of the road to character is inseparable from the virtues of its author. It has the reader you not only want to know about Frances Perkins or saint augustine, you want to know what david makes a Frances Perkins or saint augustine. The voice of the book is so calm and fair and humane. The highlight of the material is the quality of the authors moral and spiritual judgments. Across the pages david is such a reliable guy, such a pleasant companion. And the book is rich and memorable epigram. Egotism is the ravenous hunger and a small space. Humility is the awareness that you are the underdog in the struggle against your own weakness. Saint augustine it turns out was historys most High Maintenance boyfriend. [laughter] my copy of the book is underlined, start and dogeared out of admiration and envy. While containing cultural criticism the road to character cant be reduced to it precisely because david doesnt take on communal struggle. Like Frederick Bittner he finds the greatest drama in our sacred journeys the saving and losing of souls including our own. This demands a return to the moral for capillary of the previous era still half remembered and powerful, consciousness of sin, a real determination a recognition that we are most spiritually free when we are bound in a calling. Its amazing how dang