The Real Washington's Birthday

 

George Washington,  Gilbert Stuart, American, 1796

We had a federal holiday a few days ago commemorating Washington's birthday but it was simply another one of those government manipulations to provide us with three-day weekends. Washington was actually born on February 22. Perhaps a few days don't matter much in a nation that has lost its appreciation for history and reality over the past decades. Still there are some personalities and events worthy of authentic remembrance. George Washington, fondly recalled as the Father of His Country, is one of them. Here is what Scott Johnson (Powerline) has to say about the subject:

Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to whom we owe our freedom, Washington's greatness was the rarest and most needed. At this remove in time it is also the hardest to comprehend.

Today as we contend with the contemporary equivalent of "the Babylonish empire," let us send up our thanks to the Ancient of Days for this indispensable man.

Johnson originally posted these words in 2006 and it's worth reading the rest of his brief and notable remarks. Very uplifting.

Learn more about the young adventurer who became the father of his country at the following sources:

George Washington Birthplace National Monument

 Washington's birthplace - the original site is in the foreground

Fort Necessity National Battlefield

Valley Forge National Historical Park

Independence National Historical Park

George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Museum, and Gardens

Washington Monument

George Washington Masonic Memorial

In 1747, when Washington was 15 years old, he accompanied his friend, George William Fairfax, on a surveying expedition to the Virginia - now West Virginia - frontier and the headwaters of Patterson Creek, a tributary of the South Branch of the Potomac River. I got to know well over a thousand feet of Patterson Creek intimately over the span of a quarter century. The creek was a great source of recreation, leisure, study and contemplation. It was a powerful force in shaping my future. I learned of Washington's trip there long after I'd left the place but I still think about what it would have been like sitting on the creek bank in 1960 and suddenly seeing a teenage boy in colonial dress come slogging around the bend about 50 yeards downriver. That small stretch of Patterson Creek is a sacred place and although I havent sat on its bank or skipped stones across its quiet pools for fifty years this landscape I remember still speaks to me about our imaginary conversation. I'm quite sure that young Washington would have no expectation of becoming in the words of his eulogy delivered by Henry Lee, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his contrymen." 

In my experience every sacred place opens dimensions and portals as time exposes layers of its past. Listen carefully next time you stand slone in the "riffles of your favorite creek. You will hear your own stories there. Some of you may have your own talk with George. 








Sources


Illustrations:
Stuart portrait, a copy known as the Lansdowne Portrait, hangs in the White House. The original is located in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Postcards are from the author's archive.

John Glenn Makes History Aboard The Spacecraft, Freedom 7

Sixty-two years ago today, John Glenn rocketed into space history to become the first American to orbit Earth. In 1962, Glenn made three orbits then returned to a splashdown about 500 miles northeast of Puerto Rico. Over the years more 350 Americans have joined him in space travel.

John Glenn in orbit, February 20, 1962

The NASA website has a fine multimedia presentation on Mercury-Atlas 6, the mission that put Glenn and his spacecraft, Friendship 7, into orbit. Wikipedia has a page on the mission and some excellent recommendations for further reading online. To commemorate the event, The Ohio State University has a comprehensive look at Glenn's life and that of his wife, Annie. I also recommend The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe's outstanding 1979 book on the formative days of the American space program and the seven astronauts - including Glenn - selected for the Mercury program.

When we look back at the American space program, this achievement was one of the nation's proudest moments. It's heartening to see a renewed interest in space exploration let alone definitive commitments to future astronauts, a return to the moon or a mission to Mars on the part of our national government. I imagine this is in part due to commercial competition. You can learn more about our reach into space by the private sector at this this Wired link.

Glenn in training, January 20, 1962

Washington's Birthday 2024: To Celebrate A Founding Father

Regardless of what you may hear on the street today's holiday commemorates Washington's birthday. As the official federal government page states,

This holiday is designated as "Washington’s Birthday" in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.

At one time the nation had a Washington's Birthday holiday on February 22, the actual day of the man's birth but that changed in 1971 when the "Monday holiday rule" took effect. The rule was a postlude to a torturous twent year saga of federal bickering, ineptitude, and state's rights issues over the national failure to honor our presidents, especially Abraham Lincoln, with their very own holiday. The fallout left us with what is in reality a Washington's Unbirthday holiday and a three-day weekend. Honest Abe didn't make the official cut.

That said, American capitalists, never keen to let a good shopping opportunity pass, liked the idea of a President's Day, especially one that could be stretched over a full week . They saw the advantage of the patriotic fervor generated by matching silhouettes of Lincoln - log cabins - and Washington - axes and cherries - positioned over merchandise and big red signs reading "SALE." The concept caught on. Today, about all Americans have left with the third Monday in February is the opportunity to buy stuff, mostly stuff they don't need. On the federal level, this not only leaves us with nothing for Old Abe but also nothing for George on his birthday. What this day gives us is the option to celebrate a rather mediocre "Every President Gets A Trophy Day."  

So what is one to do?

Perhaps it's best to forget the issues of a misnomer and the neglected presidents and return to Lincoln and Washington as our February celebrants. And they have more in common as presidents who share the quality of American exceptionalism, a term we've been hearing more often these days as the republic drifts ever deeper into its golden years.

I elected some years ago to honor these gentlemen on their respective birthdays and celebrate this Monday federal holiday with an Old Fashioned and the pop and crack of a perfect fire. In time my conversations with the faces in the fire will help me organize a tribute post to George Washington that will appear on his birthday, February 22. We owe it to this statesman who postponed a well-earned retirement to become our first chief executive and shaper of what became known as the Office of the President of the United States.




Sources
Text:
federal holiday quote, opm.gov/policy-data-oversight

Ash Wednesday 2024

 

This is one of the most solemn and discomforting days in the Christian world for we are marked with ashes and made so very much aware of our sin. This day also marks the beginning of forty days of prayer and abstinence leading us to Christ's death and resurrection.

Although the ashen cross we bear today will fade over the hours we can take hope knowing that God's love for us will never fade.

Psalm 51

Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness; According to the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences.Wash me throughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged. Behold, I was shapen in wickedness: and in sin hath my mother conceived me. But lo, Thou requirest truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.

Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins: and put out all my misdeeds.

Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.Cast me not away from Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.O give me the comfort of Thy help again: and stablish me with Thy free Spirit.

Then shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked: and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew Thy praise. For Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee: but Thou delightest not in burnt-offerings. The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise.

O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt-offerings and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon Thine altar.

                                English Book of Common Prayer, 1662



Here is a legendary performance of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, the Latin setting of Psalm 51 composed around 1638.

John Adams: Refining The Sound Of Minimalism

This time in February we have a Lincoln birthday behind us and a Presidents Day and Washington birthday just a few days ahead. The circumstance could easily lead you to think a John Adams post would be about our second President but you would be wrong. Our subject is the prolific post-minimalist composer, John Adams, who was born on this day in 1947 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was raised in a musical family, learned to play the clarinet, performed in school bands and with local orchestras, and completed his first composition at the ago of ten.

He received two degrees from Harvard including an M.A. in composition and was immersed in music activites on campus but enjoyed listening to rock and popular music in his off hours. His interest in new music prompted him to relocate to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he taught for a decade. He then moved on to become the New Music Advisor for the San Francisco Symphony continuing to develop his personal interpretation of minimalism that brought him fame with Harmonielehre, a forty minute piece for orchestra.

In the past 35 years Adams has composed operas, orchestral and concertante pieces, a number of notable piano works, choral works, chamber music, electronic music, film scores, and orchestratios and arrangements. His sibjects have included President Richard Nixon, Robert Oppenheimer, Dharma Bums, Leon Klinghoffer, Gold Rush 49ers and their women, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001. To say his world of new music is large is an understatement. At the same time he developed international fame as a conductor and mentor for young new music conductors. And in 2009 he published Hallalujah Junction: Composing An American Life, a memoir and commentary on his personal journey. Cage resides near San Francisco where he continues a close association with both the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Here are four examples of the the post-minimalist genius of John Adams:


Hallelujah Junction, 1st Movement (1996). Used as opening and incidental music along with other Adams fragments in the 2017 film, Call Me By Your Name. In this problematic film Italian director, Luca Guadagnino, weaves love, memory, desire, and seduction into a stunningly beautiful and sensuous masterpiece.

Grand Pianola Music, "On the Great Divide" (1982). Used along with other Adams pieces in the Modern Era soundtract for the computer game Civilization IV.

Harmonielehre, Part 3 (1985). Selected by The Guardian as one of the "50 Greatest Symphonies." Also found on the soundtrack of the computer game Civilization IV, in the television series True Detective, and the film I Am Love.

Nixon In China, "The People Are the Heroes Now" and "News Has a Kind of Mystery." (1987). Nixon in China is performed around the world and recognized as a significant work in American opera.

If you enjoy new sound derived from jazz, pop, rock, and minimalism wrapped in the great traditions of classical music you may have found it here in John Adams. First, we wish him a happy birthday today and, second, we thank him for not entering the world of presidential politics beyond writing music about the subject. Most of all we wish him many more years in what should be an exciting journey in sound.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
earbox.com

Text:
John Adams, Wikipedia.com
John Adams Official Website, earbox.com
"Music Taken Personally," harvardmagazine.com, May-June 2009

Valentine's Day 2024

Happy

Valentine's

Day

February 14, 1910

For your Valentine's Day 2024 I offer three love songs by The Bard of Scotland, Robert Burns.

Green Grow The Rashes, O

There's nought but care on ev'ry han',
In every hour that passes, O
What signifies the life o' man,
An' 'twere na for the lasses, O.

Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O

The warl'y race may riches chase,
An' riches still may fly them, O
An' tho' at last they catch them fast,
Their hearts can ne'er enjoy them, O.

Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O

But gie me a cannie hour at e'en,
My arms about my dearie, O,
An' warl'y cares an' war'ly men
May a' gae tapsalteerie, O!

Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O

For you sae douce, ye sneer at this
Ye're nought but senseless asses, O
The wisest man the warl' e'er saw,
He dearly lov'd the lasses, O.

Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O

Auld Nature swears the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O
Her prentice han' she try'd on man,
An' then she made the lasses, O.

Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O

Ae Fond Kiss

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, and then forever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy,
Naething could resist my Nancy;
But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love forever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met—or never parted—
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Fare thee weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare thee weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace. enjoyment, love, and pleasure!
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, forever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!

A Red, Red Rose

O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.

Happy Valentine's Day 2024

Sources


Photos and Illustrations:
postcards from family archives

Remembering Chuck Yeager, An American Hero

Today we remember the legendary test pilot, Chuck Yeager, on what would have been his 101st birthday. Yeager was a World War II double ace - 13 kills - and a notable test pilot we best remember for one landmark achievement in aviation. On October 14, 1947. he flew his Bell X-1 beyond the sound barrier and into history on the shoulders of scores of aerospace pioneers who helped him reach that speedway in the sky.

Thanks to my interest in aviation history I had several opportunities to attend Yeager's presentations at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and actually talked with him a few times. He was always confident, friendly and entertaining with his common sense personality punctuated by humor that boiled up frequently. In addition, he dealt with fame well, being comfortable with his achievement and its accompanying limelight. At the same time, genuine or not, you always got the feeling he could be equally happy in a rocking chair on someone's front porch. Regardless, he certainly earned the right to rock or rocket until his final "flight west" took him from us in 2020.

Readers can learn more about the man and the early years of the nation's military aviation and aerospace history in Yeager: An Autobiography, an outstanding memoir originally published in 1985. A valuable companion book providing context and additional history on the nation's early manned space program is Tom Wolfe's 1979 classic, The Right Stuff.






Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Cover photo, Yeager: An Autobiography, General Chuck Yeager and Leo Janus, Bantam, 1985.


Text:www.wikipedia.com
www.chuckyeager.com

Honest Old Abe/The People's Choice

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, was born on this day 215 years ago at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Today, his grand marble likeness gazes down on millions of visitors drawn to his memorial on the Mall in Washington.

As visitors climb the marble steps, pass marble columns, and enter the chamber of the Lincoln Memorial, they are awestruck by Daniel Chester French’s enormous marble statue of Abraham Lincoln. To what part of the Georgia marble figure is the eye drawn first? Possibly, the serious look on Lincoln’s face will remind the visitor of the critical time of Civil War through which the president guided our nation. Maybe the reeds wrapped together in the arms of Lincoln’s chair will prompt the visitor to remember the way that Lincoln wanted to keep us bound together as one nation.

If you want to settle into an evening with Lincoln and his age, your choice of titles will number in the thousands and in a variety of media. I am inclined to recommend Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years. It is available as a one-volume abridgement of the original six-volume version of the biography. Not always accurate, not always "organized" as a traditional biography, Sandburg tells the story of Lincoln in the same manner a wise elder would deliver oral histories to those who wonder who they are and what they may become. It's romantic, rich, warm, organic, meandering, sometimes stormy, sometimes calm. I think the approach works well because the Lincoln story is in so many respects the American story. Also keep in mind that although well-known as a poet Sandburg soon was revered in the U.S. as a poet/writer for the people once the first volumes appeared . With that in mind, I believe Old Abe would have been proud to select a writer of popular history and culture as his official biographer.

Abraham Lincoln Photo Portrait, early 1865 Alexander Gardner

As you can see from the photo below, Lincoln and I go back a bit. That picture was taken in the spring of 1952 - complete with what would become my signature pose with binoculars - during my first visit to Washington. It began a long association with Old Abe and his American experience that peaked during the last thirty years of my career. What an honor it was to know him well and work to preserve his story for future generations visiting our national parks. For more about Abe Lincoln's early years at Sinking Spring and Knob Creek farms visit the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park website.

Beyond the photographs worth a thousand words we sometimes find a thousand words worth far more than the images and snippets we'll see and hear today about Abraham Lincoln. In 1959, the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, Sandburg was asked to address a joint session of Congress on Old Abe's legacy. Here is his conclusion:

The people of many other countries take Lincoln now for their own. He belongs to them. He stands for decency, honest dealing, plain talk, and funny stories. "Look where he came from—don‘t he know all us strugglers and wasn‘t he a kind of tough struggler all his life right up to the finish?" Something like that you can hear in any nearby neighborhood and across the seas. Millions there are who take him as a personal treasure. He had something they would like to see spread everywhere over the world. Democracy? We can‘t say exactly what it is, but he had it. In his blood and bones he carried it. In the breath of his speeches and writings it is there. Popular government? Republican institutions? Government where the people have the say-so, one way or another telling their elected rulers what they want? He had the idea. It‘s there in the lights and shadows of his personality, a mystery that can be lived but never fully spoken in words.

Our good friend the poet and playwright Mark Van Doren, tells us, ―To me, Lincoln seems, in some ways, the most interesting man who ever lived . . . He was gentle but this gentleness was combined with a terrific toughness, an iron strength.‖ How did he say he would like to be remembered? His beloved friend, Representative Owen Lovejoy of Illinois, had died in May of 1864, and friends wrote to Lincoln and he replied that the pressure of duties kept him from joining them in efforts for a marble monument to Lovejoy. The last sentence of his letter saying, ―Let him have the marble monument along with the well assured and more enduring one in the hearts of those who love liberty, unselfishly, for all men.‖ So perhaps we may say that the well assured and most enduring memorial to Lincoln is invisibly there, today, tomorrow and for a long time yet to come in the hearts of lovers of liberty, men and women who understand that wherever there is freedom there have been those who fought and sacrificed for it.

Powerful words. And if your interested in hearing Sandburg's complete address it's available here. If you have never heard him speak, at least take a few minutes to experience the compelling voice and style of a master orator, one of our most beloved poets and perceptive participant-observers of the American experience.





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Lincoln photograph, Gardner collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Abraham Lincoln statue, commons.wikimedia.org
Lincoln Memorial, personal photo 1952, author's archive


Text:
Title, from an 1860 campaign lapel ribbon, Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection

First quotation, National Park Service, Lincoln Memorial webpage, www.nps.gov/linc

Baseball's Babe

George Ruth wasn't much of a scholar at Baltimore's St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys but he excelled at baseball, the primary sport used by the Xavarian Brothers to bring structure and discipline to their 800 boys. He was born in Pigtown, one of Baltimore's many rough and tough neighborhoods near it's famous harbor. After seven years struggling to maintain their working-class family his parents assigned custody of their son to St. Mary's. He entered when he was seven years old and stayed there for twelve years. A few months after his nineteenth birthday in 1914 he signed a professional baseball contract to play with the Baltimore Orioles. He was the newest "babe" to join the team and would go on to become a legend during his major league career (1914-1935) with the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and the Boston Braves.

Babe Ruth (top row, center) at St. Mary's School in 1913

Today marks the 129th anniversary of the birth of Babe Ruth, the "Bambino," the "Sultan of Swat," arguably the greatest baseball player ever.

Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum

See Ruth's Wikipedia and National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum pages for more information, including videos, photos, and a wealth of amazing statistics.

Babe Ruth, New York Yankees, 1920

This quote from the famous American sports writer, Tommy Holmes, says it all about the Babe:

Some 20 years ago, I stopped talking about the Babe for the simple reason that I realized that those who had never seen him didn't believe me.

Sources:


Babe Ruth, Wikipedia entry
Babe Ruth biography, Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org
Babe Ruth Museum

Candlemas 2024

Readers undoubtedly will hear something about groundhogs today. They are less likely to learn that February 2 marks a Christian festival day. It is known in the western Catholic tradition as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin or Candlemas, and more often in the Protestant world simply as the Presentation of Our Lord.

The Presentation at the Temple Menologion of Basil II, ca 1000 CE

The festival marks the fortieth day following the birth of Jesus. Under Mosaic law it was a day for temple rites completing the purification of a woman following childbirth. It was also the day to present the firstborn son for redemption in the rite of pidyon haben.

The Candlemas tradition emerges from Luke 2:22-39 where Simeon prays over Jesus with words that would become known as the Song of Simeon or Nunc Dimittis:

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

                                            Book of Common Prayer, 1662



Beginning around the third century following the birth of Jesus, the blessing of candles and their procession about the church on this feast day became a symbol of Jesus as the light of the world. The practice emerged in the western church around 1000 CE.

This day is a Christmas feast day marking the end of the traditional Christmas Cycle in the Catholic calendar. It is also the mid-point between the winter solstice and spring equinox, a cross-quarter day filled with pagan traditions symbolizing fire and the "return of the light." In our house the last Christmas decorations have been removed and stored for another year. Our fireplace seems naked without its trimmings of red, green, gold, silver and glass. But the fire therein brings light and warmth, both spiritual and physical, as this joyous season comes to a close.

Down with the rosemary, and so

Down with the bays and mistletoe;

Down with the holly, ivy, all,

Wherewith ye dressed the Christmas Hall.

Sources


Text:
Candlemas, Book of Common Prayer, wikipedia.com
poem fragment, Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve, Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain, original manuscript in Vatican Library