2/18/24/ Script: Ben Franklin Podcast
JW: Here we are again—Dr. Walker—LYTBYL—with my co-host—the magnificent!—the majestic!—the magical!—the mysterious!—my daughter—Wende Whitus!… Wende…. Tell me Wende—how has your book—Your Rhythm of Rest and Reflection—how has your book been selling?
WW: Great!—good—better—much better! than my projections.
JW: I’ve read your book… It’s marvelous… Your Rhythm of Rest and Relaxation—Powerful!… and I use it… Every month… I use it… It encourages me and shows me how to rest and relax!…Revitalize!…Renew!… Restore!… Review!… and Revise!… so my next month will be better than this month!… Tell me… How do people get a copy of your book?
WW: Tells how……… But enough of Your Rhythm of Rest and Relaxation… I understand you want to talk about Benjamin Franklin—one of our founding fathers. And a fascinating man—printer, writer, diplomate to England and France, inventor—he invented the Franklin stove. You had one of those in your Red River house. Boy did that put out the heat and used a whole lot less wood than a regular fireplace.
JW: Yeah…and that was a big house… it put out so much heat we had to open the windows in the middle of a blizzard!
WW: The Franklin stove…and he invented bifocals… the lightning rod—proved lighting was due to electricity—a lot of experiments on electricity.
JW: An absolute genius… of all the geniuses the world has ever known… Franklin was probably the most versatile… the most multilayered… the most multitalented of them all…. He was a geologist, a botanist, an earth scientist, an economist, an environmentalist —you name it—took the lead in street lighting– paving streets– founded a hospital— libraries– the post office– the University of Pennsylvania.
WW: We could spend the whole podcast just talking about his amazing achievements.
JW: Did you know he played the harmonica, the harp, the guitar, and the violin. He was a hearty companion… and a lot of fun to be around… and quite an athlete… he took his first trip to England when he was 19. While there he wrote in his autobiography that he swam from Chelsea to Blackfriar’s… in his autobiography he didn’t say how long a swim it was… so I looked it up… it was 3.5 miles! 😳
WW: Wow. Make a comment here.
JW: When you were doing your triathlete stuff. How far did you have to swim in the contests?
WW: Give answer.
JW: 3.5 miles was enough to impress those watching. Thereafter he began giving swimming lessons to all the Lords and Ladies… Dukes and Duchesses… He wrote lyrics, limericks, satires, essays.
WW: And don’t forget Poor Richard’s Almanac!
JW: Essentially a calendar with all sorts of aphorisms and wise sayings… made him rich.
WW: Early to bed, and early to rise; makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
JW: And how about this one—Borrowing makes sorrowing…. That’s had for a Texan to say.
Borrowing makes sorrowing.
WW: And he wrote: Wish not so much… to live long… as to live well.
JW: Franklin certainly had a life well lived during his 84 years. Born in Boston in 1706 and died in 1790.
WW: He lived right at the time our country became the United States…. Let’s see… the Declaration of Independence that announced we were free from Britain’s control was July 4, 1776—so Franklin was an integral part of that…. Wasn’t he a member of the Continental Congress during that time… and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence?
JW: Yes. The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and ________
WW: John Adams.
JW: Jefferson added the suggested changes and The Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress July 4, 1776… but it wasn’t signed until… August 2, 1776.
WW [ 😆 Mocking] That’s an interested fact that no one will remember… or even care about.
JW: Signed by…I believe… 56 people.
WW: 🤪 You are full of forgettable facts… but you still can’t beat me in Trivial Pursuit!
JW: Dream on… You never beat me…
WW: Uh. Huh.
JW: Pop culture took me down… Anyway… Here’s something else most of us don’t think about… Weandc
didn’t gain true independence from Britain until 1781.
WW: Oh yes.💡 I remember a little of that from 10th grade US history class—1781—when Washington defeated Cornwallis in the Battle of Yorktown… but wait a minute. 🙁…We got off the subject… I thought we were going to talk about Benjamin Franklin.
JW: I recently re-read his autobiography… Very interesting… what he wrote … and what he left out, …. He addressed it to Dear Son: He mainly spent most of the autobiography telling how he achieved what he achieved and not much at all about his amazing accomplishments.
WW: When did he write his autobiography?
JW: You asked for facts… I got ‘em. He began it in 1771… wrote dabs and dribbles here and there… finished it in 1788, but he didn’t write about anything that happened in his life after 1757.
WW: No wonder he left out a lot of stuff. Let’s see he was born in 1706… so his autobiography covered the years between 1706 to 1757… so let’s see… let me do a little quick math here… so… he wrote about his life up to age 51.
JW: And he died when he was 84. So, 30+ years weren’t covered in his autobiography…. Hey Wende… you better start your autobiography. You are two years beyond Franklin’s life as covered in his autobiography.
WW: Let’s move on… I read the autobiography in college… What I remember most is a list he made… about character traits.
JW: That’s the thing that most people remember about the autobiography– the twelve-character traits or virtues he tried to achieve…. He wrote… and I quote: “It was about this time…” that was in—1728– so let’s see he was born in 1706—so he was 22 at the time… he devised this plan… his virtues… wrote this plan when he was 22…, he wrote and I quote… “I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. 😳… I wished to live without committing any fault at any time! …I would conquer all… that either…natural inclination…custom…or company… might lead me into.”
WW: 🤓 😳 What an achiever… or an ambitious idealist!… Didn’t he make some sort of chart listing those traits and at the end of each day he would give himself a bad X if he had failed to keep one or more of the virtues.
JW: At first…, he used one sheet of paper… and each week he would erase the x’s and start over…. Rather quickly he had worn holes in the paper… so his sheet was tattered… He began using something like a magic marker and using little dots and multiple sheets of paper for the 12 virtues.🥹 Later he wrote…, “I soon found out that I had undertaken a task for more difficult that I had imagined.” 😂
WW: 😂 I guess so!
WW: Wait a minute! 😗 I read his autobiography many years ago. And as I remember, he had 13 virtues… not 12.
JW: Good memory… Yes… There were 13…., but he added the 13th only with the prompting of a friend… Let me see if I can find what he wrote about the 13th…. Here it is: … Page 97 in Classic Thoughts and Thinkers… e HHI He wrote and I quote…, “My list of virtues contained at first but twelve;… but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that… I was generally thought proud…, that my pride showed itself frequently in conversation! … 🤣 Does that remind you of anyone?… 😱 … Franklin’s friend gave some examples that Franklin listed… and Franklin wrote…, “I determined to cure myself…, if I could…, of this vice or folly…, and I added Humility to my list.”
WW: Was Franklin proud about being humble? 😄
JW: Here’s what he wrote: “I cannot boast of much success… in acquiring the reality of this virtue…, but I had a good deal with regard… to the appearance of it.
WW: He admitted to being proud, but he sort of faked it…. 😘 Fake is sort of a harsh, I guess. He tried to be humble… may be a better way of saying it.
JW: Yes. He tried. And in many ways…, he succeeded… He wrote…: “I made it a rule to omit… all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others…, and omit… all positive assertion of my own… I avoided the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fixed opinion…, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc.,
WW: So, he didn’t use the words surely, certainly, definitely, unequivocally…. Assertive words.
JW: Yeah. Instead he used I conceive…, I apprehend…, or I imagine… a thing to be so or so…, or it so appears to me at present.
WW: I think, perhaps, maybe… words like that.
JW: Yes. He wrote: “When another asserted something that I thought an error…, I denied myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly…, or of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition…; and in answering…, I began by observing… that in certain cases or circumstances… his opinion would be right…, and in the present case… there appeared or seemed to me some difference.”
WW: He was pleasant—open ended—flexible. He kind of lead the person into agreeing with him.
JW: Yes. He wrote about this agreeable approach…: “The modest way in which I proposed my opinions… procured them a readier reception… and less contradiction…; I had less mortification… when I was found to be in the wrong…, 😂 and I more easily prevailed with the other person… to give up their mistakes… and join with me… when I happened to be in the right.”
WW: That sounds a lot like Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People.
JW: The best self-help book ever written. We’ll have to discuss that book sometime.
WW: Did Franklin write anything else about pride?
JW: Yes. He concluded with these words: “In reality, there is, perhaps…, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue… as pride…. Disguise it…, struggle with it…, beat it down…, stifle it…, mortify it… as much as one pleases, … it is still alive…, and will every now and then… peep out and show itself;… you will see it, perhaps, often in this history…; (his autobiography)… for, even if I could conceive… that I had completely overcome it…, I should probably be proud … of my humility.”
WW: Like C.S. Lewis wrote: “Anyone who thinks he is not proud is proud indeed.” ….But what about Franklin’s other virtues or character traits? Can you list them?
JW: I can read them. Right out of the autobiography.
ereHHere is what he wrote:
- Temperance: Eat not to dullness…, drink not to elevation.
WW: Franklin listed temperance. As number 1?🤨
JW: Yes. He said if you were drunk, you couldn’t follow the other 12.🤣
WW: 😂… What did he list second.
JW: 2. Silence. He wrote: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself…; avoid trifling conversation.
WW: Remember… not only to say the right thing… in the right place…, but far more difficult—, to leave unsaid… the wrong thing… at the tempting moment.
JW: Are you reading that? 🧐
WW: Yes. 😎 I came prepared.
JW: Remember… not only to say the right thing… in the right place…, but far more difficult—, to leave unsaid… the wrong thing… at the tempting moment…. Pretty good…. Oh man!… How often I said the wrong thing at the wrong time!!! 😱😨
WW: Brevity is the soul of wit.
JW: Shakespeare
WW: Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2 …
JW: How do you remember that! 😳
WW: Inherited genius.😉
JW: Right answer… if you want to win me over… and I know how you daughters wrap us fathers around their little finger 😂… I knew Polonius told the queen…. brevity is the soul of wit… I knew he said those words to the Queen right before… “Your noble son (Hamlet) is mad! You son is crazy!”… but Act 2, Scene 2??
WW: Line 90
JW: 🥺🤯🤩 Enough already! 😳 … Your memory is better than mine! 🤯
WW: Do you remember we are supposed to be talking about Benjamin Franklin!?!😅
JW: Oh yes… Back on track… Number 3 of Frankln’s virtues. Order. He wrote: Let all your things have their places…; let each part of your business have its time.
WW: Leverage Your Time; Balance Your Life
JW: Right on! Nice plug. Now for number 4. Resolution. He wrote: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
WW: Only fools make promises they can’t keep.
JW: Keep politics out of this!… We are talking about a statesman here… Franklin… Number 5. Frugality. He wrote: “Make no expense… but to do good… to others or yourself.
WW: Waste not, want not. Here’s another of his appropriate aphorism… Do well by doing good.
JW: 6. Industry. He wrote: Lose no time…; be always employed in something useful…; cut off all unnecessary actions.
WW: “The world is too much with us, late and soon… Getting and spending, we lay waste our hours.”
JW: Wordsworth. I’m impressed you know your romantic poets. You must be studying-up for Jeopardy.
WW: But isn’t it a shame how much time we waste on Facebook, Instagram, [Your words here.]
JW: On to number 7.… Sincerity…. He wrote: Use no hurtful deceit…; think innocently and justly…; and, if you speak…, speak accordingly.
WW: Don’t gossip. Like every grandmother in the world always said—”If you can’t say anything good, say nothing at all.”
JW: Yes…. And how many of us fail to listen to our grandmothers…. For number 8. Justice. He wrote: …Wrong none by doing injuries… or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
WW: Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
JW: Micah 6:8 … My grandfather’s favorite Bible verse… For number 9. Moderation… He wrote…: Avoid extremes…; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
WW: Don’t injure anyone… even if they deserve it…. Moderation… reminds me of Aristotle’s Golden Mean…: find the appropriate middle ground between extremes.
JW: Overdoing anything will wear you out… and you will soon stop doing it completely.
WW: Steady and sure wins the race.
JW: For number 10. Cleanliness…. He wrote: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
WW: Didn’t Franklin advocate sweeping the streets so mud wouldn’t accumulate when it rained.
JW: Yes, and clean streets would help with number 11. Tranquility. He wrote: Be not disturbed at trifles…, or at accidents… common… or unavoidable.
WW: Don’t worry, be happy. [I’ll try to play a brief snippet from the song here with Amazon Music on the iphone]
JW: And number 12. Chastity—
WW: I guess to Franklin chastity meant purity or love.
JW: Yes, purity, decency, morality, wholesomeness, self-restraint…. This is what he wrote about chastity…. Never use venery…(in modern terms—sexual indulgence)… Never use venery–sexual indulgence—but for health or offspring…, never to dullness… , weakness…, or the injury of your own… or another’s peace or reputation.
WW: How did Franklin manage his… err… carnal desires.
JW: There’s kind of a jocular comment on that in his autobiography… Anyway, it made me chuckle… let me see if I can find it… here it is on page 79…. “that hard-to-be-governed passion of youth… hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in my way…, which were attended with some expense and great inconvenience…, besides a considerable risk to my health by distemper…, which of all things I dreaded…, though by great, good luck I escaped it.”
WW: So, he didn’t follow the syphilitic path of Henry VIII… I like the way he writes.
JW: He has many pity paragraphs like that one in the Autobiography.
WW: But we don’t have time to read them… on to the 13th virtue—humility.
JW: Yes –humility. He wrote: “Imitate Jesus and Socrates.” Let me tell you about the Socratic method Franklin used…
WW: Don’t get off track. Tell me. Beside humility, what virtue gave Franklin the most difficulty?
JW: What do you think? Guess.
WW: You guess a few (or think). Hmm… Then say… maybe order. That certainly gives me a lot of trouble in this day and age. With so much going on today, I have a hard time leading an organized life.
JW: Well…, things don’t really change that much…. Order gave Franklin the most trouble…. Here is what he wrote: “The precept of Order… requiring that every part of my business should have its allotted time… caused me to write one page in my little book… contained the following scheme of employment… for the twenty-four hours of a natural day.” In his autobiography he used a page to illustrate his daily activities thusly:
He would arise at 5 AM… wash… dress… address Powerful Goodness—say his prayers—give gratitude…Contrive the day’s business—write out an activity…. Ask the question—what good shall I do this day? Prosecute the present study—I’m not certain what he meant here… and then eat breakfast.
He would work from 8 until noon.
At noon he would dine, overlook his accounts, and read.
He would return to work at 2 PM until 6 PM
At 6 PM he would and I quote here, “Put things in their places… Supper…, Music…, or Diversion…, or Conversation… Examination of the day… Ask the question… What good did I do today?”
At 10 PM he would go to sleep and arise again at 5 to follow the same routine… But he said things got in the way… and he had a very difficult time staying with that schedule.
WW: But at least he wrote it down and gave it a good try.
JW: You have a schedule sort of like Franklin desired…, a “perfect” day…. What is your schedule like?
WW: Discuss your schedule.
JW: That’s good. That inspires me to get more organized.
WW: I liked Franklin’s morning question: “What good am I going to do today?”
JW: And the evening question: “What good did I do today?”
WW: A lot of good information in today’s podcast…. Just think how better off we would all be… if we memorized… and practiced Franklin’s 13-character traits.
JW: Yes, indeed. Amen and Amen. With that give us your wrapup.
WW: What one thing did you learn today?
JW: A bunch of good things…. Just one?
WW. Just one thing… Success comes in small steps…. Write down the most important thing you learned today… so you will remember what you learned…. And tell someone about this podcast so they can learn how to… balance their life and leverage their time!
JW: Thanks, Wende. Goodbye everyone. See you next week.
****************************************************************************** I don’t know how long this will take. We can use this as a filler if needed. Cardinal virtues: Practical wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance. Added to them are faith, hope, and love, the theological virtues that round out the moral life.
In 590 Pope Gregory I wrote the cardinal list of sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath, and pride. Dante used theses 7 in the Divine Comedy.