Read My Lips

Tupper for Congress: campaign wisdom from 1960.

President John F. Kennedy meets with members of Congress. Left to right: Representative Phil M. Landrum (Georgia); Representative James William Trimble (Arkansas); Representative Harris B. McDowell, Jr. (Delaware); President Kennedy; Representative Carl Elliott (Alabama); Representative Stanley R. Tupper (Maine). Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C., Feb. 18, 1963.

My father has been gone for 18 years. This is a fact, and I rely on facts. I suck them up daily to shape my understanding of the world, a kind of armor against what’s beyond my control. As a freelancer, I’ve become adept at research, reportage, summation. Read the facts, sort the facts, interpret the facts, try to make them into something relevant and useful for my intended audience.

I suppose that’s why I like pamphlets and plaques. I can’t pass them up. I prefer to think about where we’ve been than where we’re going. My husband is used to me trailing behind on busy streets to read obscured signage, to photograph the …