Thinkin' About Lincoln, "With Charity for All" by Howard Wright, a look-alike Abe!

What a pleasure to enjoy the hour-long talk by the staturesque Howard Wright portraying Abraham Lincoln at the Northwestern CT Community College Campus Hall on September 10th, 2015.

The lovely evening marked part of NWCC's 50th anniversary and a memorial celebration of a monument to soldiers from the Civil War over the weekend. Abe was just the fellow I wanted to hear from as the events of September 11th, 2001 were being reviewed in the media and in a very poignant reading of all the names at a Patriot Day event in Canaan CT for the fifth year in a row on September 11th, 2015.

I have had the occassion to hear Abraham's representative before during a Historical Festival in Falls Village CT. I noted back then that the politics in our small towns seemed to create factions as readily as friends. What were we to do about that, I humbly asked Abe. He readily responded, "E Pluribus Unum" and explained, "out of the many, one".

Our challenge was to find compromise and work together to create community. I wondered if I would gain some inspiration from this stately Abe during his speech or in the time for questions. He did not disappoint. He peppered his talk (as did the actor playing the role of Queen Victoria the next week) with some humor such as sparing Tom the Turkey from becoming a Thanksgiving meal at his son's request (perhaps the only President to ever do so.)

He spoke Lincoln's words, measuring out the wisdom of 'Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged' in such a way during the Civil War as to allow the conflict to work itself out not necessarily in as timely a fashion as he would have hoped. Still, he said he felt in the end, slavery would be abolished, the timing and means were not always clear.

When I shared with him at the end I appreciated the moving speech about faith, hope and charity which was marked by a person giving their life for another as resonating with me in terms of how our teenaged son Kaelan Palmer Paton ended up passing his final moments during a horrific struggle of deciding whether to try to save a friend from dangerous waters and losing his life in the process (while his friend was saved moments later by a rope rescuer), he again affirmed that the 'greatest of these is charity', which we also know speaks of love.

When we have modern matters to consider in the realm of our personal lives (and any court case or familiy in conflict likely can use a lot of caring listeners to map out the journey and attempts to address conflict even if the solutions seems elusive..another form of loving is listening and recording concerns, the people's needs and possible options which unfortunately most competent leaders in one's area may not have time or interest for or not feel qualified to address even theoretically or if they were in a similar predicament.)

Now we know that denial can be based on fear of the known or unknown, lack of knowledge or lack of willingness to learn, and again lack of group awareness or concern or time over many weeks or months (weekly meetings, written summaries and so on which may be needed to comprehend certain issues.)

Our arsenal of wisdom is growing in many fields thanks to online networking and grassroots actions groups.

As more people brave finding funds and supporters through a wider networking outreaching, we feel less alone and learn more quickly about assessing issues, coping with a process for healing or finding support and following through with 'memorandums of understanding--MOUs'. While MOUs are not legally binding unless made part of a legal agreement by a judge whether in a custody, divorce or other conflict or process, they are a good working tool to learn about and employ voluntarily in helping two people or more reach clarity about the 'do's and don'ts for discussing or writing about topics, concerns, following routines or meeting requirements with accountability." As we plan along with others in the world to accept more people into our countries, states and towns, we might keep the words of Abraham Lincoln in the forefront of our minds...'E Pluribus Unum" and 'With Charity for All"