She was dying and angry, but she worked on her manuscript.

With passion because she had something to say before she died.

She wasn’t happy with Jack and his party.

But she understood to a large degree, politics — since her husband had been in most powerful position for twelve years, and she had been described as the “First Lady of the World.”

“It is today when we must create the world of the future.” 

The young Eleanor Roosevelt seemed a most unlikely candidate for fame; there was certainly nothing about Eleanor that suggested that an American President would some day honor her with the title, “First Lady of the World.” Eleanor Roosevelt lived for almost seven decades, and her ascendancy was slow and measured. She never led men in battle, and like almost all Idealists, she abhorred strife of any kind and hated war. [Presidential Temperament]

She was not martyred to a cause, she did not inspire crowds with her speech, she never wore the badge of any high office.  But she a had voice.  And she used it.

Her last book was Tomorrow is Now, published after her death, was recently rereleased with new forward by Bill Clinton.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Counselor Idealist, knew she was dying when she began this book. Yet she so wanted to complete it that she endured dangerously high fevers, tremors and persistent fatigue, a raw throat, and bleeding gums to dictate the first draft. Although she eventually yielded to family and friends who pressed her to “slow down” and cancel appointments and public appearances, Eleanor kept working on Tomorrow Is Now— even when she grew too weak to hold a teacup and her voice dropped to a whisper. She would apologize to Elinore Denniston, whom her agent had sent to take her dictation, for how much harder it made Denniston’s work— especially on those days when Eleanor’s voice was so faint that it was almost inaudible. Yet Eleanor continually struggled to make herself heard, pushing herself so hard.

She could have dedicated her last energies to an anthology of her most important works or she could have delegated the task to a trusted confidant to complete after her death. But she did not. She chose to start and finish this book because, as she told Denniston, “I have something that I want terribly to say.”

Eleanor Roosevelt had always had the need to inform people of what she thought was the truth.  Like her fellow Counselor Idealists Aung San Suu Kyi and Mohandas K Gandhi, she was insistent in her beliefs — she contended to her dying days.  When she was First Lady there were many death threats against her because of her radical and contentious views.  Passion was on both sides, many people loved her, and many people hated her.

Counselor Idealists are Diplomatic Contenders.

“… Contending entails competition. Thus to contend with another’s work one must hold one’s ground, hang onto one’s position, stick to one’s intention, tend to one’s business, stay the course, in a word, be tenacious. It is not so much that one is bent on overtaking or outdoing others, as it is having one’s way. Contenders will have their way if at all possible.” Personology, page 77.

Blessed with vivid imaginations, Counselors are often seen as the most poetical of all the types, and in fact they use a lot of poetic imagery in their everyday language. Their great talent for language-both written and spoken-is usually directed toward communicating with people in a personalized way. Counselors are highly intuitive and can recognize another’s emotions or intentions – good or evil – even before that person is aware of them. Counselors themselves can seldom tell how they came to read others’ feelings so keenly. This extreme sensitivity to others could very well be the basis of the Counselor’s remarkable ability to experience a whole array of psychic phenomena. [Please Understand Me II]

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.  — Eleanor Roosevelt

Other examples of Counselor Idealists include: Milton Erickson, Ted Sorensen, Aung San Suu Kyi, Vaclav Havel, Carl Jung, Eleanor Roosevelt[excerpted from Presential Temperament], Mohandas Gandhi