Thoughts about Abraham Lincoln a Week After President’s Day

It’s a week past President’s Day. A three day commercial holiday where some people were skiing; some stores had big sales; some daughters traveled home; some were praying for Jimmy Carter. I have been thinking about Abraham Lincoln. At one point I would have said he was my favorite president and he might still be. He served his country well under great tension and strife. Yet I know under his administration 38 men were hung at Mankato, Minnesota, the largest mass execution here in our history.

So I looked at some of his quotes and added my own thoughts. These thoughts may change on another day—when it doesn’t feel quite as tense with mass shootings and war raging in Europe. The bold sentences are Lincoln’s; the italics are my questions/thoughts.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. At some point the taxes have to be paid; we see the consequences of our lifestyle affecting climate in the future; and the treatment of the others in the past will haunt us today and the future. His face in this portrait shows the responsibility he felt.

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. Does that apply to a victim of sexual assault or an earthquake? Yet I look in the mirror and see a woman dissatisfied some days when she has a roof over head, food in the kitchen and love close and far? What am I missing on those days that would fill my happiness prescription? How can I change my mind?

When I do good, I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion.  Yes, I get feeling good when I do good, but how many times have I done “good” that the other person might not have seen it that way?

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. This quote now gives me a little pause…how do you interpret it in light of reproductive freedom? Maybe while I would not want someone to tell me what to do with my body, I would not tell someone else what to do with their body. However, I could see someone turning this around to be if I would not want to be aborted, why would I abort someone? It is a puzzlement.

Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? How often do we make friends out of enemies? I will admit that I found some acquaintances who once I did not like to be much more likeable. Were they enemies?  Did they become friends? Not sure that I can say. On a world stage, do we see China and Russia becoming their friends, making them our enemies even more so?

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds. Still a work in process to heal these wounds.

A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major-general. And their children to education, healthcare, food and housing.

I will prepare and some day my chance will come. And sometimes the chance comes with or without preparation.

Everyone desires to live long, but no one would be old. Since I’m looking in at 70, I would like to change that image of old being decrepit. The alternative is not attractive.

I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.   I think Lincoln was more optimistic about people that he dislikes or has questions about than I am. I can think of several public figures (Trump and Putin) that I don’t want to get to know better. I am curious why they are the way they are. But no thank you and it’s probably not a problem I need to worry much about.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.  I want this to be true. I want capital punishment to be outlawed; I want incarceration/racial ratios to be reviewed; I want to know that mercy falls like the gentle rain.

So my inspiration from Lincoln is not to avoid the responsibility of tomorrow. I will also strive to finish the work I am in and hopefully help bind wounds in my community and beyond. I will work to show mercy or forgiveness as that attempt will bear more fruit and I will do my best to make up my mind to be happy. Happy week after President’s Day to you and yours.