If a lay man ventures into a public domain to get an insight view of any great personalities; He is for certain in a jungle full of dead wood and often he would find teak or rose wood but even before getting there he might be eaten by a tiger or bitten by a snake. That is what happened when I tried to get myself aquatinted with today's personality upon whom today's article is based. After spending time on the abundant resources available on today's personality; I did consider if I stand a chance even to think of writing an article on this person. But after a much of consent and delibration came to a conclusion if not an article on this personality who else does stand a chance to write an article on ?
A LIFE OF FAILURE : -
Today is the birth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln - February 12, 1809. Whose father was a shiftless, illiterate carpenter and whose mother was woman of no extraordinary attainments. And his life’s first 50 years was a legerdemain of failures which never seems to end starting from the age 22.......
At the age of 22 he lost in job - The Year was 1831;
At the age of 23 he was defeated in running for the Illinois state legislature - The Year was 1832;
At the age of 24 he started a store in New Salem, Illinois. He failed in this business and later had to pay the whole debt for his failed business - The Year was 1834;
At the age of 26 his sweetheart died - The Year was 1835;
At the age of 27 he had nervous breakdown - The year was 1836;
At the age of 29 he was nominated for Illinois House Speaker but did not win the election - The Year was 1838;
At the age of 34 he was defeated for nomination for congress - The year was 1843;
At the age of 40 was rejected as land officer - The year was 1849;
At the age of 45 defeated for U.S. Senate - The year was 1854;
At the age of 47 was defeated for nomination for Vice President - The year was 1856;
At the age of 49 he was again defeated for U.S. Senate - The year was 1858;
What was the secret of his enduring spirit which did not allow him to bog down to failures of his life ?
THE VALUE OF DEMOCRACY : -
This awkward pioneer used to shuck corn and butcher hogs for 31 cents a day on the Pigeon Creek Farms of Indiana. He had attended school less then twelve months in his entire life. When he was elected to Congress he described his education in the official records at Washington, with one adjective: “defective ". Even after which at Gettysburg, delivered an address which still stands and will stand as the best addresses ever spoken by mortal man.
" Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth "
Time stands still when I read this address of his. Charles Sumner who heard this speech at Gettysburg shortly after Lincoln's death said: - “That Lincoln’s address would live when the memory of the battle was lost, and that battle would one day be remembered largely because of the speech ". True, who can argue with the correctness of his prophecy? To this day, Lincoln’s address has been cast in imperishable bronze and placed in a library at Oxford as an example of what can be done with English Language. It ought to be memorized by every student at the university.
What was his secret for writing such immaculate words with such precision and with such harmony?
THE SECRET OF SECRETS : -
It was three simple words spoken by his dying mother to him which stood by him during his times of despair and turbulence and changed his life forever. What were they? “BE SOMEBODY, ABE!!! ”. These words inspired him so much so that he went on to become the sixteenth president of the United States at the age of 51 { The year was 1860 } and left behind an legacy for the world to contemplate on....
Are we going to become SOMEBODY ?
- Thanks
Rajhashekher BC - Raj
Saterday, February 12, 2011 11:40:51 PM
rajhashekher.5@gmail.com
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