As fate would have it, I was headed for Boston when the nation received word that Sen. Ted Kennedy, the “Liberal Lion” of the Senate, had died.

I was taking my daughter to Bean Town as she embarked on her first year of law school.

The first thing I noticed when we drove into Massachusetts was that the flags were at half-staff.

I have to say I underestimated the esteem, the reverence the pure love that is showered on the Kennedy family in New England.

You could literally feel the buzz on the street. It was electric.
Everywhere you looked, and every conversation you listened in on was about the man most simply referred to as “our Teddy.”

The local TV stations interrupted regular programming to go all Kennedy, all the time.

For me, I of course immediately thought of my mother. She should have been a Bostonian. She loved the Kennedys. It started with Jack, then moved on to Bobby and eventually landed on the mantle of Ted. When I looked at Rose, the matriarch of the Kennedy clan, I saw my mom.

Me? Let’s just say I’m not exactly Kennedy-esque. The truth is I was more conflicted. I had questions about Ted Kennedy. Questions about his makeup. Years ago questions about Chappaquiddick. And years later questions about his role in the events that led up to rape charges being filed against his nephew, William Kennedy Smith.

There is one thing that stuck in my mind from the time I first heard of Kennedy’s passing early Wednesday morning.

“Of whom much is given, much is expected.”

Ted Kennedy certainly lived up to that. There is not a single piece of important legislation that made its way through the Senate in the last few decades that does not carry his imprimatur.

My mom might roll over in her grave, but the truth is that Teddy’s legacy might surpass both of his brothers, if only because he was granted they one thing they were both denied. Years.

But there was something else that bothered me as well. This one is probably personal, and likely says more about me than him.

I can’t get past the fact that this guy likely never had 10 minutes of doubt in his life, about what he was going to do, if he was going to be a success, how he was going to provide for his family, how he would take care of his children. For him, all those things were a given. He was, after all, a Kennedy.

Then yesterday I heard a couple of quotes from, of all people, Bob Dole.
The guy might have been exactly the polar opposite of Kennedy. Charisma was not his thing. He didn’t come from what is sometimes referred to as “American Royalty.” He came from Kansas. And he was damn proud of it.

But Dole made a point that I had overlooked. It was exactly Kennedy’s background that so impressed Dole about what Teddy did with his life.

He stressed that the reality is Ted Kennedy didn’t have to work a day in his life.

Instead, he dedicated his life to public service, spending more than 50 years in the Senate.

Ted Kennedy became the voice of people who were the polar opposite of the man in the mirror. The poor, the downtrodden, those who did not have – who would never have – all the benefits bestowed on a kid from Massachusetts whose last name is Kennedy.

Of whom much is given, much is expected.

And Ted Kennedy delivered.