This Is What I Learned From One of My Heroes

When I lived in New Orleans, I used to get my haircut by this guy named Pat in the French Quarter. I remember looking around the Monteleone Barber Shop, which had two conspicuously empty chairs, and asking why Pat never had anyone else working in the shop with him.

“I used to,” he said, “but the other barbers kept speaking badly about the President so I let them go.” Ordinarily, I would have just left it at that–this was the Deep South and politics are always risky–but I had to know.

“What president?” I asked.

“Jimmy Carter,” he said like I should have known.

I remember thinking, “lol what?” Had he really been holding onto this grudge for thirty years? And who white knights for Jimmy Carter?

But that curious exchange sent me down a rabbit hole. Over the years, I read a chunk of the books Carter wrote (I would not have guessed he wrote 30+ books). I also read several big biographies on Carter and became genuinely fascinated by a man that I’m not sure I’d heard a single good thing about growing up.

But because of Pat, slowly but surely, Jimmy Carter became one of my heroes. In fact, I’d argue he is the hero of my book Right Thing, Right Now, and largely the inspiration for the title. He appears in Discipline is Destiny and some of my favorite…