that kind of joy

 

------------------- [excerpt from Chris Matthews' biography of Robert Kennedy (not the current one, but his father)] ------------------------

        The problem for Bobby as he was taking his place in the U.S. Senate was that the challenge of these new responsibilities and duties wasn't enough to displace what James Stevenson, the New Yorker writer, observed to be his "resident, melancholy bleakness."  

        The black necktie he hadn't yet stopped wearing could be seen as a symbol of the unlifting darkness he felt in a city filled with such sharply etched memories.

        Adam Walinsky, his young legislative assistant, could sense the conviction Bobby seemed unable to dispel, that no matter what he did heading forward - "whether he got to be president or not . . . it had been the most fun before, when John Kennedy had been president, and that he would never be that young again that he would never have that kind of joy again."

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