The Hermit Philosopher has been dismayed,
discomfited, and disheartened for nearly two months – since the morning of November
9, specifically. It has been hard for him to accept that our next President
will be an egomaniacal, misogynistic, buffoon and that his party will soon control
all three branches of the federal government.
Nevertheless, that is the
situation. It is not a delusion. And we will live through it, just as we have
lived through other uncertain periods.
One precarious time in our
history stands out in the HP’s mind. It was 1861, and Lincoln was being inaugurated
on the eve of the Civil War. The election that previous November had not been the
cause of PESD that year, but many in
the population must have felt similar symptoms.
Recognizing this, Lincoln spoke words
that might bring comfort to us today. Here is the memorable passage with which he
closed his first inaugural address:
[If] the people retain their virtue and
vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very
seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.
Though passion may have strained [us], it must
not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from
every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all
over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
