Lincoln bicentennial

Well, ye socks, it was two hundred years ago today that the venerable Abraham Lincoln was born.

I used the word "venerable," because a lot folks these days have elevated him beyond even the iconic status he has enjoyed since his assassination. He has become the secular saint of far too many. You've seen them using his memorial up in DC as an altar of sorts, and as an inexplicably potent backdrop to much of their carryings-on.

Frightening.

The truth about Lincoln is that, like all of us, he was painfully human.

Don't take that statement as an insult, though. I think it was his humanity that made him worthy of our collective memory.

As I have mentioned in a previous post in this dryer (see http://sockdryer.blogspot.com/search?q=Ann+Rutledge), yours truly has a round-about family connection to the "Great Emancipator." And, I believe it was that tragic episode during his youth and its aftermath that gave Lincoln the tremendous capacity he had for dealing with crisis situations despite personal emotional turmoil.

So, today, I would encourage ye socks to remember Lincoln the man, someone who succeeded despite his many flaws and tribulations.

But, save the veneration for Sunday.