Chapter 6 - Ethical Culture Fieldston School

“Mr. Sinatra Gets Rejected”
Henceforth, Sinatra would play a Man in Control so effectively that it
often seemed even he himself was convinced of his omnipotence. So it must have
been all the more shocking when his friend Jack “Chicky Boy” Kennedy would
teach him otherwise in that breezy way Sinatra himself, despite decades of
trying, could never quite master.
“I think he solved it – whatever he was going through –
by keeping it inside of him and filing it, putting it aside to use later in his art.”
‐‐Sammy Davis Jr. on Sinatra’s fall and later comeback 37
The most dramatic point in the history of an American Dream is not its
moment of conception. Nor is it the moment of realization, or (as some might
suppose) that moment just before it is realized. Rather, it is that essential moment
of adversity when the attainability – or perhaps even worse, the legitimacy – of
the Dream is called into serious question. It’s at moments like these that the true
costs of dreaming begin to come into focus: of energy not allocated to other
purposes, of potential disappointment that has accumulated in direct proportion
to hope. It’s also the same time when crucial questions – like the difference
between growing up and giving up, between being persistent and merely being
pathetic – become honestly confusing. You begin to find out (without really
intending to ask, and without really wanting to find out) who you really are: a
person of real, but limited, talent; a self‐deceived poseur; someone of
accomplishment whose achievements, as it turns out, are not as important as
they seemed; or perhaps one happy with – and maybe even humbled by –
success.
American History for Cynical Beginners
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