Bush footprints tell tales of a leader who made mistakes

The late George H.W. Bush, 41st President of America.

The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s A Psalm of Life is easily the most cited poem in transitional moments. Longfellow (1807 – 1882) was a Harvard scholar and teacher of languages who also wrote the books that he used to teach. Away from this, he found the time to put down some of the most memorable poems of all times. And so it is that we often come across the lines, “Lives of great men all remind us/We can make our lives sublime/And, departing, leave behind us/Footprints in the sands of time.”

The words echo time and again, whenever a great man sleeps. And on Friday last week America’s 41st President George H W Bush slept the sleep of the brave. Once again, the world was reminded of Longfellow’s famous imagery, “footprints in the sands of time.” Bush Senior was described as “a great patriot, a noble man, a good man and a great American.”