Thursday, January 17, 2008

"More Painful than Pleasant"


Abraham Lincoln and his father had a complicated relationship. Search Lincoln’s letters and try to find a “word of praise” for his father. You won’t succeed.

Consider the final letter he sent to his father.

Harriett Hanks Chapman, Dennis Hanks’ daughter, sent Lincoln a letter in early January 1851. She had just visited his father and things didn’t look good. He was in terrible health and, by all accounts, he would not recover from his latest illness. She told Lincoln that the family had written to him twice, but he had failed to respond each time. His father was dying, but he didn’t seem to care. Why?

After reading her letter, Lincoln finally reached for his pen. Instead of responding to her, he wrote directly to his stepbrother, John D. Johnston, who was at his father’s bedside.

Lincoln began by telling his stepbrother that he had received both of the letters. He had not forgotten about the letters, nor had he “been uninterested about them,” but “it appeared to me I could write nothing which could do any good.”

He explained that he could not travel to nearby Coles County to see his father. “My business is such that I could hardly leave home now,” he wrote. Moreover, his wife was presently “sick-abed” with a case of “baby-sickness,” though he did not think it was serious. Mary had given birth to their third child, Willie, on December 21, 1850, some three weeks earlier.

But before he closed his letter, Lincoln worked up some final words he wanted his father to hear:

I sincerely hope Father may yet recover his health; but at all events tell him to remember to call upon, and confide in, our great, and good, and merciful Maker; who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will not forget the dying man, who puts his trust in Him. Say to him that if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant; but that if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous [meeting] with many loved ones gone before; and where [the rest] of us, through the help of God, hope ere-long [to join] them.

Why did Lincoln think it would be “more painful than pleasant” to see his father? By painful, did he simply mean sad? Was he trying to say that it would be painful or sad to see his dying father because he loved him and did not want to see him suffer? Maybe.

The illness was indeed serious.

On this date in 1851, five days after Lincoln wrote to him, Thomas Lincoln died. He was 73.

Lincoln did not attend the funeral.

Two years later, the Lincolns named their fourth and final child after him. Interestingly, he rarely went by “Thomas;” instead, everyone called him “Tad,” because his father said his large head reminded him of a tadpole.

A little more than nine years after his father’s death, Lincoln visited Coles County for the final time. He had been elected president and was preparing to leave for Washington. He said goodbye to his stepmother and visited his father’s grave. He mentioned that he would like to have a headstone placed at the gravesite.

Two years after the assassination, in late 1867, Lincoln’s widow wrote to her husband’s aged stepmother:

My husband a few weeks before his death mentioned to me, that he intended that summer, paying proper respect to his father’s grave, by a head & foot stone, with his name, age & & and I propose very soon carrying out his intentions. It was not from want of affection for his father, as you are well aware, that it was not done, but his time was so greatly occupied always.

However, Mary failed to make good on the promise.

By 1880, local citizens spearheaded an effort to erect a monument to Lincoln’s father. When Lincoln’s son, Robert, heard about their efforts, he made “a generous contribution to the undertaking.” He also donated money for a tombstone to mark Nancy Hanks Lincoln’s grave.



2 comments:

QuietCypher said...

Who Are We? And What Are We?

We are all created by the one and only Pure Love; most may call it GOD. We are Consciousness/Spirit that has been contained inside of this shell called the Human Body. I can honestly say today; I love everyone for the simple fact that we are all working on Self, making ourselves better for the LOVE of Pure Love, rather the work is Sub-Conscious or Conscious, and we are all the same physically in a sense: Head, 2 Eyes, Nose, 2 Feet, Toes, Fingers etc. We all come from the same source; maybe different planets...lol, but we all come from the same source.

Anything that one creates is a part of themself; for the simple fact is that you manifest that creation from within yourself. So to say that you are separate from your creator is you saying that: you are the body, you are not worthy, your stupid, your too ignorant, whatever the case may be, but these things that you call yourself is not what you are. Let's take it back to creating something; whatever you create is a part of you manifested from within. Now; your creation can tell someone your whole story in a symbolical type way that it may even shock the inventor. Now since that creation call tell someone your whole life story in a symbolical way; does that make the creation seperate from yourself; No, simply because it is part of yourself.

We have came to believe that we are the body for the simple fact of the 5 senses: Taste, Touch, Feel, See, Smell, but this is all an illusion because of the fact that it is not real. Anything that can be destroyed is not real. The physical body is somewhat like a Prison or Jail for you, and the physical body is tied to the 9 planets in our solar system. 9 holes in our body, 9 chokras and that ties to the imprisonment, but we have a release date; the goal is to build SELF Realization. By realizing who you are, you find out that you sit on the right hand of Pure Love/GOD/Higher SELF, whichever term suits you. We have been munipulated to believing that we are seperated from Pure Love so that the Devil/Enemy can have it's way with us, but not anymore because now you know that you are special to Pure Love and when we know that; we will act accordingly, but the battle is not easily won.

There is so much recovering that we need to do that it could not be obtained in only one life. All of us are unique in our own way; we all have gifts, rather your conscious of it or not....you all have gifts and those gifts are gifts of Pure Love. We are here to Love each other and grow in that Love at the same time, but something happened; we've forgotten Who We Are, What We Are and we have Forgotten How To Get Back.
It is very important that we do not become attached to anything of this world because it will cause us to come back again. We have to get rid of selfish desires, that we are the containment, that we are seperate from the creator, etc. The battle is not easily won, but Pure Love LOVES you more than you can imagine and you are the creator.

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Brian said...

Fascinating and sad story about Lincoln. One more piece in the puzzle of his depression.