We live in times that have so far eclipsed “interesting” as to make a mockery of that very concept. We in America are divided in ways that seem to harken back, somehow, to the moment of our greatest fracture, the Civil War. But then we had Lincoln, we had a leader who mattered, whose existence nurtured this world with something better, something noble, even. I don’t know what Congress was like then, but ours now is feckless and harmful in ways too numerous to count. We have no Lincoln among us. And none on the horizon. And if we did, too many of us would tune him out, turning instead to curated listening lists of podcasters, hucksters, haters, and other assorted dregs on the internet, telling us what we want to hear, rather than what we might actually need to know.

Why am I going on about Lincoln? In a world that seems to be teetering, with worthy leadership lacking on every continent of this struggling world of ours, I landed on him in a grab for some nostalgic notion of what could be. Which is kind of crazy, given how gruesome the Civil War was, and how cruelly Lincoln’s life ended.  But maybe looking back is the only way–at least for me–to continue to try to move forward. Because this moment, the one we are dragging, cursing, alienating, horrifying, and disappointing our way through, is not one providing much positive inspiration.

There is rage in abundance, on Right and Left. There is lying, deceiving, scapegoating and worse, on both sides. I am profoundly UNinterested in who is more to blame. Score-keeping of that sort is a special form of narcissism that solves nothing, helps no one, and adds to the general........

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