#215 reconciliation

I spent several evenings during my holiday break watching the 1989 Civil War series that Ken Burns directed for PBS.  I chose it from the library since I am still moved by the Lincoln movie I saw earlier in December.  Up until that time, I had been to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield and walked the stairs of his monument in Washington, DC, but I had not really studied much about the man.  Now I am having a hard time figuring out why not.  

When Barack Obama ran for his second term, I wondered why anyone would want the job.  Yet Obama has it easy compared to what Lincoln faced upon his re-election -- a country in a fourth year of a Civil War, succession of 11 of 36 states and mounting casualties.  But Lincoln won re-election with 55% of the vote.  Maybe it was because people could see his passion for preserving the Union and his ability to embrace the members of the Confederacy after the conflict ended.

One his more famous quotes comes from the closing of the First Inaugural Address:
"We are not enemies, but friends.  We must not be enemies.  Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.  The mystic chords of memory ... will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

As we begin the new year, I encourage you to invoke the better angels of your nature to reconcile with someone with whom you have a strained relationship.  Offer the olive branch, invite someone to coffee, extend an opportunity to partner with a department that has been challenging to work with, or do something that draws upon your similarities rather than differences.  The Union doesn't depend upon it, but the angel within you will be glad.

-- beth triplett
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