Monday, November 26, 2012

Of Lincoln, Elections, and a hectic life

It has been a crazy 6 months or so since my last post. Started a new school year at LHS... keeps me very busy and time seems to fly ever more quickly as I plow through the weeks with my students.

It is our second year on this new (now not so new) 4x4 schedule and things are going along swimmingly well. We are still into iPads at our place although not so new anymore as many other schools are doing 1:1 with this remarkable tool as well.

Thanksgiving break was this past weekend and we had a quiet one. It was nice, restful, and probably about a day too short for me, personally. I am really finding it takes my batteries a bit longer to recharge than it has in recent years.

A highlight of the past weekend was a visit to the movies to see Spielberg's newest film, "Lincoln". A deeply moving account of our 16th President and all the valleys he trudged through in order to get the 13th amendment passed abolishing slavery. It struck me then as ever it does that this particular piece of our history is not all that far in the past. 160 years is not all that long a time in the grand scheme of things.... and certainly not in the lifetime of a nation. Seeing this chilling fact played out on the big screen was intense and made me come home and do some reading about the men on both sides of the issue.

Having just completed an election here in which there was much polarizing talk on both sides of the experience, I was struck by how it has ever been so to varying degrees in our nation. Democracy is an incredibly messy and boisterous way to run a country. It takes people of strong fiber to pull it off. We have never been a nation of weaklings in that regard and it is worth remembering leaders like Lincoln who had the courage to make uncomfortable choices that may not have been politically beneficial to them at the moment they made them. Interesting.... and a lot to think about.

Hope to be back soon.....