The Meaning of Life

That's how Esquire bills its annual "What I've Learned" issue, featuring wisdom and advice from a cross-section of mostly well-known people.

It's a fast read and an entertaining format, where the interviewee's direct quotes are presented in short bursts, sometimes a single sentence, sometimes a tight paragraph. You don't know what the exact question was that prompted the answer but sometimes you can guess.

This month the magazine displayed its creativity (and resources) by piecing together interviews with John, Robert and Ted Kennedy -- the first time it's ever been done with someone who's not living. And how did they do this? By sending top editors to the LBJ Library in Texas and the Kennedy Library in Boston and trolling through their resources.

"And then," Editor David Granger explains, "a pack of assistant editors and interns combed through out-of-print books, long-forgotten news accounts, and even back issues of Esquire in search of revealing, surprising and personal reflections in the brothers' own words -- both official and offhand -- to offer a collective portrait, more textured, candid and intimate than just the legacy of their more familiar public pronouncements, many of which are seared into our collective consciousness."

The result is a window into the brothers' privileged lives as well as the humor, vanity and sense of hope that defined them.

The inside spread begins with a black-and-white photo of the three in Hyannis Port, Mass., circa 1948 with all three -- Jack, 31, Bobby, about 22, and Ted, 16 -- smiling broadly at the camera, as if they hadn't a care in the world. And then you read:

I have no firsthand knowledge of the Depression. My family had one of the great fortunes of the world and it was worth more than ever then. We had bigger houses, more servants, we traveled more. About the only thing that I saw directly was when my father hired some extra gardeners just to give them a job so they could eat. I really did not learn about the Depression until I read about it at Harvard. My experience was the war. I can tell you about that. -- JFK, 1960.

[FYI, During the Depression, 1929-39, John would have been ages 12 to 22.]

Some people think that because you have money and position you are immune from the human experience. But I can feel as lonesome and lost as the next man when I turn the key in the door and go into an empty house that is usually full of kids and dogs. -- RFK, late sixties.

My brothers were my dearest friends. They were just human beings -- and wanted to be considered that way -- but they were extraordinary. I cared very deeply about them, loved them. I miss them. No day goes by when I don't. That gap will be with me for the rest of my life. No way to bridge that. -- EMK, 1985.

The January 2010 issue features interviews with 15 people, ranging from Kelsey Grammer, Sting and Ornette Coleman to 50 Cent, Alberto Gonzales and Katie Stam, the reigning Miss America from Seymour, Indiana. Buy it, read it and pass it along. Or...just click here.

Photograph: JFK Presidential Library