WFB Redux

Reading the WFB accolades in the latest NR, I can't help but feel a bit of Buckley-induced inadequacy, something likely universal enough to deserve its own term, maybe “Buckquacy”. Who wouldn’t? He seems to have had it all, meaning not material things but a Catholic weltanshung driven by friendships. Perhaps it’s natural for the introvert to be envious of the extrovert’s charms, although to see him in those terms would demean his generosity. Charity and extroversion, after all, are not synonyms. But with Buckley I always got the sense that here was someone vibrantly Christian without morbidity.

Stories of Buckley’s largess to “nobodies” like college kids – i.e. like me – tend to discomfit me because I would be terminally embarrassed by them. But that is the story of God writ large is it not? God’s generosity is discomfiting.

Comparing ourselves to others is folly but can become an iron-strong habit of mind. He was born in a different age, a more genteel time, into a brand of Catholicism far more potent and self-confident. He also had the advantage of growing up in a large family, and even better the advantage of being a middle child, sixth of ten, which gives a person the advantages of conviviality and sangfroid without the spoiling that can occur in the youngest. He also had natural gifts that surely would’ve exhibited themselves even outside culture and family. We can all enjoy William F. Buckley's life without feeling the need to live up to his example.