Nobody
There was a plastic cube that sat on the edge of the desk. A few months prior it was a real life saver, or did it just hold him back? The room was a college dorm and he had a roommate, but that roommate hadn’t stepped into his life just yet. It was his first time away from home and getting away from his parents was the long sought after dream he always searched for.
Now he was 2000 miles away from home. Home for him was where he pretty much spent all his life. He knew of distant lands only through family vacations. Now he had arrived a week before school started, eager to get his new life on its way.
He found that not knowing anyone was much harder than he thought. He grew homesick and just wanted to go back home. His parents talked him into giving it a little more time, but, at that very moment, he was convinced that would do no good.
The little plastic cube on the edge of his desk had five pictures of the land he came from. They were pleasant photos of family, friends, and memories he left behind. Everyone had high hopes for him as he set out to conquer the world. Now he sat alone in his room and it would be another week before school started and his new roommate would arrive.
Often he would sit at the desk and stare at the cube and wonder what he was doing here. He was miserable. He was pretty popular back home and here, no one even knew he existed.
A month later things were quite different. He made many close friends from the other guys who lived on his hallway. They would laugh and carry on when they weren’t in class. Often they would gather in one of their rooms and just sit around and tell stories and laugh.
One of those episodes took place in his room. Everyone was laughing and carrying on. He was in conversation with one of the guys when one of his other friends noticed the cube on his desk and picked it up. By now, it had been a while since the lad had even noticed it sitting on his desk. It was covered in dust.
The friend noticed one of the pictures and shouted, “Super Cruse!” Without even realizing it, the lad turned and said, “Yes?” as if to answer the call. The friend started a laughter train that would roll through the entire room.
“Super Cruse” was a nickname some of my friends gave me in high school and went with me to the community college I attended. I guess, to those old friends, I was something special. Quite honestly, being called “Super Cruse” did make me feel kind of special. But when I went to college, far from home, I felt far from the banner that I carried back home. I was a little embarrassed when my new friends discovered my old title. After all, it was a title that had to be earned, not one that was freely given.
I’m sure if anyone looked up their family history they would come across someone famous. From great-great-great-great-great-great distant grandfathers and grandmothers, someone is bound to show up. If not, I’m sure there is a fifth or sixth cousin four times removed that would be famous somewhere.
This future President was no exception. One of his 7th great-grandfathers was George Bunker. He was the namesake from the Bunker Hill of the Revolutionary War. Two of his 21st great-grandfathers were King Edward I and King Henry III. His 7th great-aunt was Mary Perkins Bradbury, who was convicted of witchcraft in Salem in 1692.
Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VII, was this future President’s second cousin 13 times removed. President John Adams was a third cousin five times removed and Samuel Adams was a third cousin seven times removed. Johnny Appleseed, aka John Chapman, was a fourth cousin three times removed.
If you dug deep you would find links of this future President to Presidents John Quincy Adams, Franklin Pierce, US Grant, GHW and GW Bush, James Garfield, Franklin Roosevelt, and Rutherford B Hayes. You could add the names of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Susan B Anthony, Brigham Young, Aaron Burr, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Hancock, Humphrey Bogart, Lucille Ball, Clara Barton, and PT Barnum.
But in his small little world, he would enter it as just the son of John and Victoria. If he had never become President, their graves at Plymouth Notch Cemetery would probably never be visited. They would never be known as one of those people you would brag about being in your family line. But for our future President, they were his world.
His name is one of the most used names in the Bible, yet very few probably even know much about him. According to the King James Version of the Bible, if you added the number of times his name is mentioned it would be more than Adam, Jonah, Abraham, Peter, Joseph, and Mary are mentioned, combined.
Strangely enough, his father’s name might be the most mentioned name in the Bible, but he is almost equally as obscure. His father does have one advantage, though, once you heard his story you would recognize him.
This Bible character came from a large family. Much like the older Osmond brothers today, he, too, was overshadowed by a younger brother. Oddly, that younger brother dominates many of the Old Testament headlines. This younger brother would go down in history as one of the Jewish people’s greatest heroes. But this Bible character’s name would receive more attention than his more famous younger brother. It was not really because of the Bible character himself, though.
Not surprisingly, the Bible weaves lives back and forth through its pages. It could leave one to wonder why certain people, like our Bible character, were picked to fill its pages. Much like life itself, it’s not the all-stars upon whom the story depends, but it is the nobodies that people forget, that take the Bible from one scene to another.
During my divorce I felt the same loneliness as I did that first week away from home at college. I felt most of the people who we, as a couple, surrounded ourselves with, abandoned me. Once again, my life felt worthless. I did not know where to turn.
If you live long enough, life will hand you many curves. All you want from life is for it to be a straight highway. You work so hard to keep the road straight, and before you know it, there’s a curve. Worse yet, it’s one of those dangerous, sharp curves. It seems the more you hope the road will straighten out again, the curvier it gets.
For me, I thought I would never see a straight road again. I just wanted to stop and get out of the car. The most amazing part about times like these is the people who God places in your path to help you through them. Usually they are people you would have probably just walked right by if you were on the straight path.
I was very lucky that four incredible people came into my life at that time: Janet, Butch, Scott and Gloria. I don’t think any of the four were even friends with any of the other ones. I don’t believe any one of the four even knew much about the other three.
Janet was a longtime friend. I grew up with her and our paths crisscrossed many times. Janet was one of those incredible friends who was very fun to be around, but who could also be very blunt with you about yourself. She was very honest in her evaluation and usually she was spot on in her assessment.
Butch was a customer of the store I managed. He was on his second marriage and he learned the lessons of heartbreak from his first marriage. He also understood the value in discovering yourself and fixing your hurt before you moved on to a new relationship.
Scott? I’m not really sure how our paths came together at this time. I helped him and his wife on one of their moves and we started a friendship then. He would eventually transfer to Southern Maryland, but, despite the distance, we continued our friendship.
Gloria was a girl I knew growing up in church. She came from a family that produced some really cute girls. In fact, I had my first crush on her youngest sister. She was a few years older than me, so our paths rarely crossed other than seeing each other at church. I remember that she was always tied to her boyfriend, Jack. They were almost inseparable. My Mom suggested I contact her because one of her daughters had the same issues as my ex-wife had.
So there you have the gang of four. You may have walked right by them and never even known what great people they all are. If I didn’t have my problem, I would have probably done the exact same thing.
Janet, Butch, Scott and Gloria would do more for me than they will ever know. They got me through the roughest part of my life. They taught me what it meant to have someone really care. They taught me to hurt for other people when they hurt, because that is exactly what I felt like they did with me.
Janet would let me spout off, but she wouldn’t let me feel sorry for myself. She taught me the value of self-worth. She showed me that I was a fun person and that I was fun because I was me and not because of who I was with.
Butch and his wife made me feel like part of a family. As a member of their family, I wasn’t going to be allowed to just sit at home and sulk. They took me to outdoor concerts even though I know I was no fun to be with. They got me signed up for a bowling league they were in. Although I was never the bowler Butch was, I was on a team where I made some great friends.
Scott and his wife also made me feel like a part of the family. Scott’s wife always encouraged him in his friendship with me. Scott and I would often have long talks, or should I say he let me ramble on and on. He never judged. He never contradicted what I said. He never told me what to do. He just let me talk and say whatever I wanted. He understood if I heard myself talk, I would figure out a lot of it on my own.
Gloria was so sweet. She taught me to separate myself from my problems and other people’s problems. She told me that you cannot be responsible for other people’s issues. She told me I could do what I could to help, but if other people don’t want to help themselves, or if they want to make bad choices, it’s their choice not mine.
One might really be surprised by how simple the gravesite of our future President is. If you really look at his life, though, it is a perfect fit. He once said, “We draw our Presidents from the people…I came from them.” There are seven generations of his family buried with him there.
Close by his grave are John and Victoria, his mom and dad. His father was like his best friend. The future President would always have difficulty getting close to others, but he was known to let down his guard with his dad. Many letters survive between them to confirm this judgment.
When they found the President after he died in the upstairs of his house, they also found a silver locket in one of his pockets. He had carried that locket on his person almost every day of his life. Inside the locket was an old, faded picture. That picture was of his mother.
The future President’s mom was light-skinned with delicate features and a “golden flint in her hair.” She was observant and witty. The future President would describe his son as having those same features. Like her son, the future President, she loved reading, stirring language, and natural beauty.
Shortly after the future President was born, his mom became an invalid. There are stories that she was injured in a buggy accident. The future President cherished and adored his mother.
The future President’s mother died when he was just twelve years old. No one knows whether it was complications from that buggy accident or, as another rumor has it, from tuberculosis.
To listen to future President, you would have thought his mom was there most of his life. His mom would die on her thirty-ninth birthday, which probably made it even harder for the young lad to accept.
It was a frigid day in March when his mother died. The ground was covered with snow and frozen solid. It would be several weeks before they could actually bury his mom.
Our Bible character was the fourth son of his father’s first wife. In those days a man could have more than one wife, and the wives could let the man produce even more children with their handmaidens. His father’s two wives would live by those guidelines, therefore, he would have many other brothers. Still, out of all those combinations, he was his father’s fourth son.
If you look carefully at his story, it appears that he was the spokesman for all his brothers on many occasions. Even though one of his younger brothers seems to get most of the good press, and seems to be the most successful, his father would bless him and say, “Your father’s children (his brothers and their descendants) shall bow down before you.” That was quite a statement considering the eventual status of his younger brother.
When the Bible character was younger and living at home with his father, there were many other sons before his father’s second wife produced a son of her own. The father was overjoyed that his second bride produced a son for him. He would baby and spoil the child. Naturally, the other brothers were hurt that their younger half-brother seemed to be getting all the love.
Of course, the younger brother ate up all the attention. He would even gloat that he was the favorite. Finally, all but one of the other brothers decided enough was enough. They would have to rid themselves of this pest. They decided to kill the brother and make it look like an accident.
Our Bible character, in a way, came to the younger brother’s rescue. He convinced his other brothers to sell the brother into slavery and then they could stain the younger brother’s garment with some animal blood. They could then tell their father they found the lad totally devoured by a wild animal. All that was left of the boy would be the coat which the father would recognize. They would split the money they received for selling their brother.
Again, our Bible character would speak for the group of brothers and tell the father the horrid news of his son’s death. The look on their father’s face must have been so heartbreaking because none of the sons would ever want to see that look on their father’s face again.
Our Bible character would marry a Canaanite woman. I’m sure this was a disappointment to both his father and the whole family. Marrying outside of the family was not looked on very favorably. They would have three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Shelah must have been quite a bit younger than his two brothers.
Er would marry a girl named Tamar. Er was a very evil man and God struck him down. In the tradition of the day, Tamar was handed down to the next oldest son, Onan. This was to honor the dead brother, who produced no son. If the next son was successful, the first son’s wife could bear a son that would carry the dead son’s name. This practice could continue until a son was produced or they got to the end of the line of sons.
Onan must not have been too fond of Tamar because he acted romantic with her but he made sure she did not become pregnant by him. This really upset God and he took Onan’s life, too.
Shelah was still way too young to produce children. Our Bible character realized this and sent Tamar back to her family and told her he would call her back once Shelah was old enough to be a father. Tamar totally trusted her father-in-law and returned home to her family.
Our Bible character must have forgotten his promise or he must have not liked Tamar either. When Shelah was old enough to become a father, his father, our Bible character, let him marry someone other than Tamar. Tamar would find out.
Our Bible character would head to the town where Tamar lived. She was standing by a well and he did not recognize her. In fact, he thought she was a prostitute and he thought she might show him a good time for a night. Tamar played into the act. After she rendered her services, the Bible character realized he left his wallet at home. She said she would take his staff and other belongings as collateral. When he sent one of his servants with the payment, Tamar was nowhere to be found.
Tamar would become pregnant by her interaction with our Bible character. When told that Tamar was pregnant, and not knowing it is his child, our Bible character demands that she be brought to him and be stoned for not respecting his son’s bloodline.
Tamar reveals the true father of the coming child by displaying the staff and other items. Our Bible character realizes it is his stuff and that it is also his baby Tamar is carrying. He breaks down and ask for forgiveness.
As if our Bible character’s story can’t get any worse, a great famine covers the land. Only a neighboring country had the wisdom to store up grain for the many years the drought has covered the land. The father sends some of his sons to buy some of the grain. Our Bible character, once again, seems to be the group’s spokesperson.
The guy in charge of the grain allotment remembers the boys. His memories of the boys are not good memories. He decides to test the boys to see if they have changed from the way he remembered them. He accuses them of being thieves.
Our Bible character pleads with the seller. He tells him the whole story of the distraught father who has lost a son already. He also tells him of the only remaining son from that mother. The seller demands proof. He imprisons one of the other brothers and says he will not free him until they bring proof in the form of the other brother. Again, our Bible character is the one to bring the bad news to his father.
Much time would pass before the father finally realizes that there is no other way to survive other than to send the other son. The seller is overjoyed to see the young lad and he sends them away, but he has one more test for them to pass before he believes they have really changed.
He places one of the treasures of his house in the younger brother’s bag. When the brothers get some distance off, he sends his guys to track them down. To all the brothers’ surprise, they find the treasure in the young lad’s bag. Our Bible character jumps into action and tells the seller, “Take me. For I have promised our Dad the lives of my very sons if this lad does not return home. Please take me!”
Jacob’s (or Israel as he would be called) son, Judah, is our Bible character. Jacob, and his other name, Israel, are possibly the most mentioned names in the Bible. Of course, the Jewish people would be called Israelites. His sons would be the names of the tribes of Israel. None of the tribes receives more mention in the Bible than the tribe of Judah.
The seller, Judah’s brother, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, was Joseph, the guy with the coat of many colors. Despite Joseph saving his father and brothers from the terrible drought, and giving them some of the most fertile land in Egypt, it’s not from Joseph’s line that our Savior comes. Jesus comes from the line of Judah.
Victoria Josephine Moor was a neighbor of her future husband, John. It was a very small town so that’s probably not all that odd. She married John when she was twenty-two. They were described by the community as, “friends to all and enemies to none.”
Not much is known about Calvin Coolidge’s Mom, Victoria Josephine Moor Coolidge. What is known, in her short life here on earth, was that she had a profound impact on a little boy who would one day become President of the United States.
Coolidge would say of his mom’s death: “The greatest grief that can come to a boy came to me. Life was never to seem the same again.”
Often we look at life through our thoughts of the great ones we come from or the great ones we have met or noticed. We are related to this person. We know that person. We met a notable person. We think of the world through the lives of the popular and the famous.
Sometimes we even compare our lives to theirs. We limit ourselves because we can’t sing better than others. Of course, we can’t stand in front of a crowd because there are so many others that are more eloquent. There are others who know better how to help people. Others are more talented than we are.
We forget that it is the friend we might have walked by that has helped us. They had no special talents other than being there. We look at all our bad choices and believe ours cannot be a life of influence. We forget that our Savior came from a very tainted family tree. We see our limits and we forget about the invalid mother, who died really young, who still produced a young child who carried her in his heart through the Presidency and even to his death.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, In those times I am reluctant to reach out to others, no matter the reason, please help me to reconsider. Please help me to step out of my comfort zone and just be a friend. Amen.
