Energy expressed through action is vigor. You can tell the difference between a sports team that is playing with spirit and energy, and one that is going through the motions. Or think of a colony of ants scurrying about to build a nest, or a swarm of bees defending a hive. Whatever skills a group of people may possess, vigor will improve their chances of success.
Real
True Narratives
John F. Kennedy's brief presidency is a study in vigor. Having sought the office as an idealist, Kennedy enlisted the best and the brightest into a new administration that promised to bring the United States into a new era. Kennedy's vision was that of a new frontier, illustrated by Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Though Kennedy's legislative accomplishments were few, the national attitude of the early 1960s, which he helped to create, laid the groundwork for the sting of major legislative achievements in economics and civil rights that Kennedy's successor would guide through Congress and sign into law.
- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965).
- Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power (Simon & Schuster, 1993).
- Richard Reeves, Portrait of Camelot: A Thousand Days in the Kennedy White House (Abrams, 2010).
- Terry Golway and Les Krantz, JFK: Day By Day: A Chronicle of the 1,036 Days of John F. Kennedy's Presidency (Running Press, 2010).
- John F. Kennedy
Other narratives on vigorous people:
- Walter Stephen, A Vigorous Institution: Sir Patrick Geddes (Luath Press, 2007).
Imaginary
Visual Arts
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Music: Composers, artists, and major works
In the late 1940s, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and others popularized a jazz idiom known as bebop. Its vigorous rhythms and intricate runs suit today’s value. Many people trace bebop’s origins to Coleman Hawkins’ recording of “Body and Soul.”
- Body and Soul
- “On the Sunny Side of the Street” album (1944)
- Centerpiece
Charlie Parker:
- with Miles Davis
- Charlie Parker at Storyville
- Charlie Parker with Strings
- numerous tracks from 1950
- Bird at St. Nick’s
Books about Charlie Parker:
- Stanley Crouch, Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker (Harper, 2013).
- Chuck Haddix, Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker (University of Illinois Press, 2013).
Benny Carter albums:
- “The Origins”
- “Central City Sketches”
- “Jazz Giant”
- “Additions to Further Definitions” (1966)
- “My Kind of Trouble” (1988)
- “Live and Well in Japan” (1978)
- numerous tracks
- Grandes Maestros del Jazz
- Big Band in Copenhagen (1968)
- Be Bop reunion, 1975
- Dream Band Jazz America, 1982
- in Redondo (1986)
- 70th birthday jubilee celebration (1987)
- live at the Royal Festival Hall (1989)
Roy Eldridge albums:
- “Roy’s Got Rhythm”
- “The Nifty Cat”
- Mexican Bandit Meets Pittsburgh” (with Paul Gonsalves)
- “At the Opera House” (with Coleman Hawkins)
- “Soul Mates” (with Dizzy Gillespie)
Tabla duets, from the Indian classical tradition:
Compositions:
- Wilms, Symphony No. 7 in C Minor
Poetry
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, / Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, / The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, / The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, / The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, / The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, / The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, / The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, / Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, / The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, / Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
[Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1891-92), Book I: Inscriptions, “I Hear America Singing”.]