week four.Books come to you (or you to them) in the precise moment they are supposed to come.
Lincoln is a respected and admired historical figure. A person and a president whose ideas defined a time and a nation. I can't think of a more relevant read at this time, in 2009 in America, than the life of Abraham Lincoln.
I just finished the last of 599 pages. And by reaching the end, I met a new start.
I can't even start to measure the ways in which this book has moved my me in heart and mind. I look at this country's history with understanding eyes. I appreciate better the heartbreaking tragedy of civil war. I admire the precious principles of the constitution. I value more the freedoms we enjoy and the absolutism we fear. I respect, perhaps truly for the first time, the sacrifices made by so many so I can live like so few. And I admire, value and respect Lincoln, his time, his politics and his vision and the incredible significance of his life.
The book also helped me understand better our current world, our problems and our battles. Our disillusion and our fears. But mainly it helped me regain faith in the fellow man.
Personally I do not know sacrifice of the type that was demanded of Americans in those difficult years. We live privileged times today and sadly we take for granted values that were foreign to us just 150 years ago; freedom, equality, wealth and prosperity.
But perhaps the most important lesson I have learned reading this wonderful book is that there are values we must find true, principles we must guard and that patience and understanding must be exercised even more when problems seem more unsolvable.
This fascinating book "starts" in 1962, when the author challenged by J.F.Kennedy "not to grade a President unless one has examined all information available to him when he made his decisions" decide to write a biography from the point of view of what Lincoln knew at his time.
As opposed to other books, where while reading I would find a thought or a concept that would trigger a realization or a meditation, like a participant or player. With this book I've felt more like being part of an audience. Admiring, enjoying and savoring the play as it unfolds. But in need of time to really absorb the full meaning of the whole.
so I will capture what moved, surprised or inspired me about Lincoln, which in itself, its a lot.
When describing Lincoln the author suggests that chance, or accident, played a determining role shaping his (lincoln) life. Lincoln said when referring to the emancipation "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."
Some of his most lovable traits were compassion, tolerance and willingness to overlook mistakes. he also had a very pragmatic approach to problems. If a solution was fated not to work another could be tried.
He had a quality "a man of achievement" a quality which Shakespeare possessed so enormously... Negative Capability, that os when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irriable reaching after fact and reason.
Lincoln had an insatiable desire to educate himself, and enjoyed Aesop's fables, which became ingrained in his mind "a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand"
An amazing fact about Lincoln's life is that during his lifetime he lost his mother, his little brother, his father, a girlfriend and three sons. I thought that many of us would feel a lot of deep and justified sadness. But for some reason, the book doesn't explore the sorrow he must have suffered.
I really enjoyed his speeches and writings. It seems to me that his mind composed thoughts like composing images to be understood by every man, disregarding his background or education. He really had an inherent ability to relate to others.
- let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. let reverence for the laws be breathed by every american mother, to the lisping babe, the parttles on her lap, let it be taught in the schools, in seminaries and in colleges, let it be written in primmers, spelling books and in almanacs, let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice. In short, let it become the political religion of the nation. -
Lincoln is a respected and admired historical figure. A person and a president whose ideas defined a time and a nation. I can't think of a more relevant read at this time, in 2009 in America, than the life of Abraham Lincoln.
I just finished the last of 599 pages. And by reaching the end, I met a new start.
I can't even start to measure the ways in which this book has moved my me in heart and mind. I look at this country's history with understanding eyes. I appreciate better the heartbreaking tragedy of civil war. I admire the precious principles of the constitution. I value more the freedoms we enjoy and the absolutism we fear. I respect, perhaps truly for the first time, the sacrifices made by so many so I can live like so few. And I admire, value and respect Lincoln, his time, his politics and his vision and the incredible significance of his life.
The book also helped me understand better our current world, our problems and our battles. Our disillusion and our fears. But mainly it helped me regain faith in the fellow man.
Personally I do not know sacrifice of the type that was demanded of Americans in those difficult years. We live privileged times today and sadly we take for granted values that were foreign to us just 150 years ago; freedom, equality, wealth and prosperity.
But perhaps the most important lesson I have learned reading this wonderful book is that there are values we must find true, principles we must guard and that patience and understanding must be exercised even more when problems seem more unsolvable.
This fascinating book "starts" in 1962, when the author challenged by J.F.Kennedy "not to grade a President unless one has examined all information available to him when he made his decisions" decide to write a biography from the point of view of what Lincoln knew at his time.
As opposed to other books, where while reading I would find a thought or a concept that would trigger a realization or a meditation, like a participant or player. With this book I've felt more like being part of an audience. Admiring, enjoying and savoring the play as it unfolds. But in need of time to really absorb the full meaning of the whole.
so I will capture what moved, surprised or inspired me about Lincoln, which in itself, its a lot.
When describing Lincoln the author suggests that chance, or accident, played a determining role shaping his (lincoln) life. Lincoln said when referring to the emancipation "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."
Some of his most lovable traits were compassion, tolerance and willingness to overlook mistakes. he also had a very pragmatic approach to problems. If a solution was fated not to work another could be tried.
He had a quality "a man of achievement" a quality which Shakespeare possessed so enormously... Negative Capability, that os when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irriable reaching after fact and reason.
Lincoln had an insatiable desire to educate himself, and enjoyed Aesop's fables, which became ingrained in his mind "a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand"
An amazing fact about Lincoln's life is that during his lifetime he lost his mother, his little brother, his father, a girlfriend and three sons. I thought that many of us would feel a lot of deep and justified sadness. But for some reason, the book doesn't explore the sorrow he must have suffered.
I really enjoyed his speeches and writings. It seems to me that his mind composed thoughts like composing images to be understood by every man, disregarding his background or education. He really had an inherent ability to relate to others.
- let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. let reverence for the laws be breathed by every american mother, to the lisping babe, the parttles on her lap, let it be taught in the schools, in seminaries and in colleges, let it be written in primmers, spelling books and in almanacs, let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice. In short, let it become the political religion of the nation. -
Me encanta! BOOOKS, meant to be.
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