In 1861, as Abraham Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois for his first term as president, he made a speech from the train car about his “grave duty” and “the principle or ideal that has kept this Union so long together.”
With his characteristic eloquence and elegance, Lincoln says
Perhaps we have come to the dreadful day of awakening, and the dream is ended. If so, I am afraid it must be ended forever. I cannot believe that ever again will men have the opportunity we have had. Perhaps we should admit that, and concede that out ideals of liberty and equality are decadent and doomed. I have hear of an eastern monarch who once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence which would be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with the word, “And this too shall pass away.”
Had Lincoln’s words ended just where I ended them above, this speech might be remembered as defeatist and depressing—clear evidence of his clinical depression—but Lincoln goes on to say that, as comforting as it might be to say “This too shall pass away,” it is no way to live. He exhorts the crowd to develop “the natural world that is about us and the intellectual and moral world that is within us” and believe we can make ourselves better.
I’ve been sick this week and have been living in the “this too shall pass” mode, wondering how I might hunker down and let my illness (and all the other mishaps that seem to gather around me) just pass over. Sometimes, I don’t have the courage or will to do what Lincoln asks and simply want to get to the end of what I’m doing and move on. Completion could easily become the standard for my life.
Yesterday I learned the mood in the United States has dropped 14%. Please don’t ask me how they measured this statistic or what it means, but I believe something is different with us right now. The economy has certainly soured and the war in Iraq drained our confidence and initiative, but the malaise runs deeper. Without a clear goal to pursue, we are left with simply hoping everything passes over. We’re not practiced at the hard work of extricating ourselves. We’ve lived so long now practicing comfort and escape. But we do have extrication to do.
Perhaps I’m only projecting because I’ve felt so ill this week, but I wonder where the gumption of Lincoln has gone. I can hardly imagine either of the major presidential candidates making a statement like Lincoln’s. To be fair, I doubt Lincoln spoke so candidly in his campaign, but I’m tired of national self-congratulation and the sense that this ship will, with minor adjustments, right itself. We seem too critical of any candidate who criticizes our nation when what we really need—especially after the last eight years of fairy tales—is critical self-examination. I’m tired of vapid patriotism. The greatest courage is facing the troubles you’ve fallen into. We’ve said it so many times before in an empty political way, but this time it seems true—we are at a crossroads.
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake (where I was reminded of Lincoln’s speech), he has Kilgore Trout welcome back free will with the words “You were sick, but now you’re well, and there’s work to do.”
To me, we seem far from well, but we can’t reach that stage without first acknowledging we’re sick. Once we can say so in the past tense, we can move on.
Filed under: Abraham Lincoln, American Life, Angst, Culture, Doubt, Essays, History, Hope, Human Nature, Ideas, Life, Longing, Musings, Opinion, Oratory, Politics, Society, Thoughts, Vonnegut, Writing
I can’t imagine either–perhaps Lincoln wrote is own speeches coming from inside the man–not the way it is today.
His first inaugural address was a collaboration with William Seward, and he ran most of his speeches by other people, but this particular speech was certainly his own, scrawled in his hand. I think some presidents enjoy making speeches and some don’t, but in our time, it’s the performance they focus upon. For Lincoln, it was the ideas and the sentiment. In the American Civilization class I co-teach, as they were studying The Civil War in history, we traced Lincoln’s evolution in the presidency through the First Inaugural, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural. For me, it wasn’t just a study in the development of his psyche during those year but also a close look at how he developed from a political writer into a prophet. As a writer, he is certainly one of my heroes. —D
The America of today has nothing to be proud of, but where is the spirit of the pioneers that made her great,and the remembrance of all who fought for her? It is up to you all not to throw it away.
I hope you will soon be feeling better.
I am feeling better, thank you. I like to think we have it in us to recover from our mistakes—we have done it before—but I think we all like to think that. I wonder if we’ve become too soft to struggle with deprivation as we did in the pioneer days. But we will have too, so perhaps we’ll find out. Thanks for visiting and commenting! —D
JoeFelso Sensei,
Hope you’re feeling better. I was feeling really awful this past week as well, and I too, thought, this shall pass. Finally, today, I feel that it has. I’m thankful because there are too many things I want and have to do, and when my body breaks down, I suffer more from the frustration of having to put off those things than from my actual illness.
As for the mood in this country…Yeah, it’s not good. But just how long it will take for this to pass, I wonder.
By the way, your mention of Lincoln made me think of a very interesting book I recently came across, called Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon. I watched a fascinating interview with the author on Bill Moyers’s PBS show. You can find the book and site at http://www.slaverybyanothername.com.
I’ll check it out. I’m always looking for ways to discuss experiences that are hardest for contemporary students (and especially my particular type of contemporary student) to understand.
I’m feeling much better now, though, like you, being sick always makes me think about how much time I’m wasting. Summer seems to be ticking down already and can’t spend time as extravagantly as I did in June. I’m down to those things I really have to do—a little like this country actually.
Thanks for visiting, Mari. —D
hello joe, i cannot help but to remember how hard abraham had to work to succeed… he was also a very spiritual man… he had many obstacles but still kept on… today, yes, we have obstacles but for most of us things are easier… we have heat, water, electricity at the tip of our fingers.. we go somewhere, get in our cars, turn on the air conditioner or the heater.. it’s all there.. even the simple things are taken for granted.. can we possibly imagine cooking on a wood burning stove… chopping the wood for heating water as well… it is a brave new world we live in today… it is easier but yet so much harder… shall we ever truly know paradise here on earth… i enjoyed the simple clarity of your post and glad to hear you are feeling better.. there is another proverb that fits appropriately for every occasion.. there is nothing new under the sun.. don’t know if you are familiar w/eccleasiastes 1:9
Every summer I think about life before air conditioners. Perhaps it wasn’t as hot or perhaps the people of that time adjusted their expectations and knew ways (we’ve since forgotten) to mitigate the heat . Maybe they never considered it could be different and just grew used to it.
I don’t believe in progress. Things change, sure, but for every dubious gain there’s some unanticipated loss. While we can’t go back, I wish we could grow up enough to think about the consequence of “progress” before we dive in. I suppose you could say it’s our optimism that leads us to leap without looking, but a little forbearance wouldn’t hurt anyone. Thanks for your thoughtful comment. —D