When pursuing ambitious goals, it can be easy to attach ourselves to important people, but it’s easy to forget that those people were influenced by others who came before them.
I recently had the opportunity to tour President Ronald Reagan’s ranch — El Rancho Del Cielo — in California where he and First Lady Nancy Reagan spent much of their time. The humble residence sits on hundreds of acres, with hills surrounding it on both sides so that it feels tucked away from the outside world.
When Nancy Reagan sold the ranch to Young America’s Foundation in 1998, she insisted that it be kept exactly the way that they had lived in it in order to preserve its history and purpose. The decorations are the same as they were when the Reagans lived there and it seems almost as if the couple is still around, keeping an eye on things.
One gets this impression especially from the bookcases.
The same books that Ronald Reagan read and cherished still line the walls. The only thing that makes one realize the place is more of a museum now than a home are the plastic barriers on the shelves. Other than that, it seems as if one could simply grab a book, pull up a stool in front of the fireplace, and spend a day reading.
It occurred to me that there are many names on the bindings of those books that I didn’t remember — or even recognize.
Perhaps, though, that is one of the highest honors in life: to have one’s writings, thoughts and concerns end up on the bookshelves of great men and women who put their country, their family, and their faith first, and somehow along the way, found solace in the words written by someone who might have never known or dreamed that their writing would make its way to that house on the ranch.
It is certainly a special privilege to be counted among the books that inspire others to do great things, but I believe it would also be humbling to acknowledge that everyone needs inspiration, everyone needs encouragement, and we never know when our words might provide that.
According to Young America’s Foundation, “Reagan’s only genuine forms of relaxation—at least by most definitions—were his horseback rides during the day and his reading by the hearth in the evenings.”
The ranch was important to Reagan. He said, “Riding on one of the tree-lined trails, or gazing up at the western skies, well, there’s no better way I know of to sort out a problem.”
“The 40th president ‘relaxed’ at the Ranch by working at the Ranch. His unique method of relaxation included cutting wood, clearing brush, and a penchant for chopping up used telephone poles that found new life as a sturdy, winding fence,” YAF noted.
“We relax at the Ranch,” said Reagan, “which if not Heaven itself, probably has the same ZIP code.”
Reagan invited various people and world leaders to El Rancho Del Cielo where they could see him in his most comfortable element.
Per YAF:
“There’s something about the wild scenery and serenity of the ranch and the easy gait of the horse beneath me that I find particularly relaxing. And while I loved living in the White House, I must confess that nothing in this great wide world of ours quite compares to having a home on the ranch.”
In a way, inviting books and authors by way of their words into one’s home is just as important as the distinguished global heads of state that came to Reagan’s place of solace. Ronald — and Nancy Reagan even more than the former president — left that example for us, the visitors, who will come by the ranch for decades to come. People will be able to see the 40th president’s inspirations and be shown the books he used to find the help and answers that he needed.
In this time of division and constant engagement through online resources, we might learn something from the Reagans who were at peace when they got away from Washington and spent their days in the midst of nature, accomplishing tasks which gave them encouragement and fulfillment and perhaps renewed their minds.
A quote that has been attributed to Ronald Reagan sums it up: “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
This notion applies to those authors and thinkers, too, the ones who are on the bookshelves, the people who perhaps inspired the former president but may never receive due credit for their influence.
To be on the bookshelves in the humble homes of great leaders — perhaps that is the greatest ambition and the highest achievement, even if it gets little credit.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.