Monday, May 14, 2007

Ancient History

I drove to downtown Atlanta today. It was strange and I didn't like it. I searched a title in Fulton County but spent too much time in the record room. I wish I could have had a day off today. We had a nice evening with mojitos and hamburgers and sausage. It was a typical Summer evening. Cindy sprayed for mosquitoes which was nice, even though I have a bite on my leg.

Now I am watching a television program about Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. It was an interesting time in American History. The American press and the middling desires of the American public to run over the problems of the high and mighty of society. What we take for granted these days was brand new in these times of the early Republic. Perhaps John Adams was the best of them all. He had the ability to see everything as it was and to see everyone for who they were. Even in the end, the ability to reclaim his friendship with Jefferson shows a certain amount of clarity of vision. I think Adams's only real problem was his inability to understand why others did not agree with him. But Adams was brilliant and gifted with a wonderful partner for a wife and a genius for a son.

Today is the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hooray! I should have had some oysters to celebrate, instead of roasted beef and sausage. A good English beer. I guess I still have time for that. This republic was founded on good English ale. It was only later when we passed over the boundary of the Blue Ridge that our good Scots-Irish citizens could stop and build a still and find the first landmark use for corn. Genius! Take a grain which can get wet or dry and turn bad with time and grind it and blend it with native water and let it sit until it turns into something easily stored and transported. The shelf life alone is remarkable.

Today is also the birthday of Meriwether Lewis. Lewis and Clark. This is the part of American History which crosses my family's path. Meriwether Lewis, born in Albemarle County, near Jefferson and Monticello, and educated at Liberty Hall (now Washington and Lee University), and he died in Tennessee. William Clark, born in Caroline County (where my family lived before they moved to Halifax County, the last stop before Western Kentucky), settled in Kentucky and then died in Missouri. They were both Easterners and Westerners and blazed a trail for my family to follow. I have no family connection to either man that I know of but they may have known members of my family. The geographical connections are very close.

I remember travelling to Charlottesville and Monticello. There is an odd familiarity to it I can't deny. It feels like deja vu when I go there. It flows like my blood. It might be illusion, but there is no denying that it is a magnificant place, even though I spent my four years a little bit to the west. I enjoy that part of Virginia also. I remember driving around the country in the Fall, trying to collect my thoughts, there was something comforting about those hills. I still love it so.

Those rolling hills are stately and old and sturdy. They have the feel of something of permanence. Perhaps when we begin to worry about the changing of our world, we should stop and travel to Lexington and remember how unchanging this world can seem. I think the legacy of Washington and Lee are control and honor and will. They both worked hard to be strong and sturdy. Washington was an aristocrat, but worked very hard to get where he was and to stay there when he got there. Lee was trying to replace the emotional fury of his father and its undermining of the family's place in Virginia society with sheer effort of will and a strict sense of honor. Perhaps both of them are allied by that word: honor.

Jefferson was exemplary of creativity, artistic temperment and intelligence. President Kennedy made remarks about a group of artists and musicians convened at the White House and stated that that was greatest example of intelligence and creativity exhibited at a supper in the Executive Mansion since Thomas Jefferson ate alone. However, Jefferson could not live with what he came to understand. The slavery issue ate him up and he couldn't live with his principals. He constantly had to ignore them in order to sustain his lifestyle. He also suffered from his own ambition.

Washington, on the other hand, seemed to be at his greatest when he ignored his own ambition and the ambition of others for him. Perhaps the greatest moment in American History occurred when George Washington turned down a permanent place of leadership and returned to Virginia. Lee, also, showed restraint and control when he turned down a place of leadership in the American army for a tenuous one in the Virginia militia. This self-control was mirrored by his choice to give his final energies to Washington College. As Washington understood that it was essential to the development of this country to turn down a "kingship", Lee understood that education was the fundamental building block of rebuilding a fallen society.

Well, this has been my little tribute to Virginia for the day. My mother had her medical test and there was nothing serious there. So I can end this day with a short little tribute to the birthplace of my ancestors. Sic Semper Tyrannus. Non In Cautus Futuri.

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