I was composing a column on "Christmas Back Then" in my mind when I became caught up in the extended funeral observances for President George Herbert Walker Bush. In the words of a television commentator, it was indeed “an American moment,” just as the similar observances for Pres. John F. Kennedy were “an American moment.” At some point, I realized that the latter was a “back then” event from 54 years ago.

Much about the Pres. Bush 41 funeral observances seemed just right to me. His simple gravestone message,” I loved Barbara very much”, is powerful. For a man who had been much and done much to sum up in this way everything that was central to him is a moving testament to marriage and devotion. It spoke to my own feelings about Annette, dead for 5 1/2 years, but still my own true love. Having lost my wife, father and mother and father-in-law and mother-in-law, I cried with his family.

More important for others is his record of service and how service was basic to his values. In one of his speeches, he said, “One just use of power is to serve others.” A plaque at the George H.W. Bush Library and Museum declares, “Any definition of a good life must include serving others.” Such sentiments seem out of step with the present, but it is the present that is the aberration not the past.

His eager, courageous military service in World War II is remarkably similar to that of President Kennedy. Both were from wealthy, powerful families and could have avoided dangerous duty but chose active combat. Both survived almost deadly combat events. Both continued to serve their country as political leaders.

Many people did not know or had forgotten the service of Pres. Bush 41 as this country’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China after diplomatic relations with that country were established. It required careful leadership. He also served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a critically important duty during the Cold War -- and now as well. While many people remember Pres. Ronald Regan’s challenge, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” it was Pres. Bush who guided this country during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and structuring “the peace dividend.”

As with other presidents, I was not a fan of everything that he did. However, he was steady and smart in handling the Gulf War to expel the invading army of Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. He used patient diplomacy to create an international coalition and develop a plan of overwhelming military action.

He knew the Middle East. For four millennia, it had seen the rise and fall of empires, all of them ruthless. The fall of every emperor or dictator was followed by the rise of another just as bloody. He understood that military removal of Saddam Hussein would require a new dictatorship to achieve any sort of “peace” and that his country would not, could not, be that dictator. Some less wise people criticized him. They should have studied the history of the region, including the Bible.

President Kennedy’s funeral was similar in the sense of national mourning. The military salutes, the gathering of all sorts of dignitaries, the long lines of ordinary people waiting to visit with their fallen hero.

There were huge differences. Jack Kennedy had challenged the nation to a better version of itself, had held up new goals, had called its people to service. In fact, his successes had been limited. His proposals were opposed by some in Congress and elsewhere. But millions of people wanted him to succeed and believed that only he could lead the nation to be that better place and people. Part of our profound sorrow was mourning for the death of his dream.

A repeated theme during the observances for President Bush was that this country was seeing the last of The Greatest Generation. There seemed to be no one around with his humility, integrity and drive to serve without being served. His legacy was contrasted with what now seems to be a hopelessly broken political system.

However, I remember that the despair at President Kennedy’s death gave way to hope as others picked up the torch of leadership. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson was a master of political process and secured passage of much legislation proposed by the martyred JFK. The Peace Corps was born, etc.

Having had my heart broken and then mended “back then,” I continue to trust in the “better angels” of our character. We never have been and are not now universally mean, ugly and greedy. Some are, but not most. Just as we had heroes who enlisted in the military after Pearl Harbor, there were heroes who enlisted after 9-11. For some time, political candidates have tuned their ears to shouted complaints from all directions, some legitimate, some just greedy. When we again have leaders who challenge all of us not to ask what our country can do for us but rather what we can do for our country, then we will reassert our greatness.