NOTE: In the spirit of today’s national holiday, I took some time to dip my feet into historian Jon Meacham’s masterful new biography of President Lincoln: “And There Was Light — Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle”. Meecham’s Prologue has dispelled an old belief of mine that emancipation was the inevitable result of the American Civil War. I thought to post it here as a reminder of the true significance of the crusade to abolish enslavement via the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865, finally moving our country towards universal implementation of one of our most cherished ideals: that all human beings are created equal.

“Emancipation was not foreordained. The closest parallel to the American experience with ending slavery, that of the British Empire in the 1830’s, was a story of gradual, compensated emancipation.

The compensation was paid not to the enslaved but to the slaveholders, and the timing was not immediate but tiered. It is estimated that the sum, which underwrote the ultimate liberation of about eight hundred thousand enslaved people, was equal to 40 percent of Great Britain’s annual expenditure, and the instruments that financed abolition were not paid off until 2015 — a century and three quarters later.

Lincoln’s decision to seek total abolition for nearly four million people through a constitutional amendment was, in context, radical and revolutionary — and he risked not only his own reelection but the whole of the cause of Union to pursue it. Under pressure to rescind emancipation, Lincoln stood fast.

‘They tell me some want you to take back the Proclamation’, Hannah Johnson, the mother of a Black Union soldier, wrote Lincoln.

‘Don’t do it. When you are dead and in Heaven, in a thousand years that action of yours will make the Angels sing your praises.'”

John Bayerl

June 19, 2023

by Paulo Coelho

NOTE: I hand-copied this piece from a small literary magazine a few years ago and its words have stayed with me. They provide a useful differentiation between bragging and sharing our real accomplishments with honesty and integrity such that others might actually be inspired by them. JB

A warrior of the light shares his world with those he loves, and animates them to do what they most enjoy.

            At that moment the adversary appears with two tablets in hand.  One of the tablets says:  “Think more about yourself.  Conserve your blessings for yourself or you’ll end up losing everything.”

            On the other tablet is written:  “Who are you to think you can help?”

            A warrior knows that he has faults, but he also knows that he can’t grow alone, can’t just distance himself from his companions.  Even knowing that the adversary is partly right, the warrior doesn’t give too much importance to the tablets, and keeps spreading enthusiasm to his surroundings.

            Sit down with your companions around the bonfire and let everyone talk about his conquests.  Then make a special welcome to the strangers so that they can sit together as part of your whole group. Being witnessed in this way, everyone can be proud of his life and of his own successful battles.

            The warrior knows how important it is to share his experience with others; he speaks with enthusiasm about the path; he talks about how he resisted giving into a certain temptation, and how he found a solution in a difficult moment.  But when you speak about your inner adventures, you should carefully review any words of excessive passion or romanticism.

            Sometimes it’s permitted to exaggerate a little, knowing that your predecessors also exaggerated some.  But when you find yourself acting boastful, try not to confuse your genuine pride with mere vanity, and resist believing your own exaggerations.

            A warrior of the light inspires confidence.  He makes mistakes whenever he exaggerates his stories, even a little,and ends up making himself more important than he really is.  As a warrior of the light, he is ultimately prohibited from lying.

            So when you sit down at the fire and talk with your companions, know that your words permeate into the memory of the Universe and are a testimony of what you are thinking.

            The warrior might reflect:  “Why am I talking so much when much of the time I’m not able to do what I say.”

            This is an important reflection.

            The heart responds: “If you publicly defend your ideas, you will have to act on them if you want to live in accordance with them.”

            Precisely because he considers what he says, the warrior succeeds in transforming himself into what he says.