Happy Birthday Abe,
Today, in the midst of violence and war and international crisis, your message of hope, reason and faith are not more apparent and necessary, but equally so. His message was more than one nation, more than all nations, it was universal. His character has been described as melancholy and pathetic; a tall, uncomfortable man who seemed ill fit for the world he inhabited. People have likened him to a near-biblical figure, so powerful were his words. Today still he stands as a figure of constant interpretation and examination; some have viewed him as a bit of a lout, others have placed him on a pedestal he'd most certainly never approve of.
These days, it's hard to imagine Abraham Lincoln as a man; he seems ethereal and separate, a mystery apparition whose existance is only a somber snap shot and text on a page. What really -can- be said about him? What am -I- really saying about him, outside of words that have been parroted a million times before. For now I'm forced to simply add my voice to the cacophony, chasing around with a butterfly net with the rest of my somewhat unhinged ilk.
Abraham Lincoln is more than a man, and more than a symbol. He is an architect of history; his legacy reverberates through the laylines of our unconsciousness. He is the face of a million builders and worksmen who shaped the modern world, he is the one who gave this building a facade. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is just a date; not arbitrary but without meaning outside the abstract. Every day might as well be his Birthday.
But, of course, none of these are new ideas.
Today, in the midst of violence and war and international crisis, your message of hope, reason and faith are not more apparent and necessary, but equally so. His message was more than one nation, more than all nations, it was universal. His character has been described as melancholy and pathetic; a tall, uncomfortable man who seemed ill fit for the world he inhabited. People have likened him to a near-biblical figure, so powerful were his words. Today still he stands as a figure of constant interpretation and examination; some have viewed him as a bit of a lout, others have placed him on a pedestal he'd most certainly never approve of.
These days, it's hard to imagine Abraham Lincoln as a man; he seems ethereal and separate, a mystery apparition whose existance is only a somber snap shot and text on a page. What really -can- be said about him? What am -I- really saying about him, outside of words that have been parroted a million times before. For now I'm forced to simply add my voice to the cacophony, chasing around with a butterfly net with the rest of my somewhat unhinged ilk.
Abraham Lincoln is more than a man, and more than a symbol. He is an architect of history; his legacy reverberates through the laylines of our unconsciousness. He is the face of a million builders and worksmen who shaped the modern world, he is the one who gave this building a facade. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is just a date; not arbitrary but without meaning outside the abstract. Every day might as well be his Birthday.
But, of course, none of these are new ideas.