Some years are more difficult than other years. By all accounts, 1861 was a difficult year for the United States. It was the year when the southern states seceded from the Union precipitating the Civil War, creating a fault line in American society that remains unresolved. It was also the year that Abraham Lincoln was elected President.Lincoln gave his First Inaugural Address on Monday, March 4, 1861. It's a ponderous affair, not very eloquent, and the new President takes a delicate dance around the issues of slavery and individual state's rights. Nonetheless, he does so with a respect and dignity for which he is remembered. Lincoln's First Inaugural ends with a very important paragraph:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained 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.The phrase "the better angels of our nature" has roots in Shakespeare—Gratiano in Othello, and Dickens—the opening of Chapter 29 Barnaby Rudge. Dickens likely picked up the phrase from Shakespeare, and Lincoln from Dickens. It is Dickens usage that underlies Lincoln's remarks, and Dickens speaks of "such small heavy constellations as Charity, Forbearance, Universal Love and Mercy," and "the shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed." Our better angels of charity, forbearance, universal love, and mercy are deeply spiritual virtues, the very best of our humanity.
Harvard Psychologist Steven Pinker picked up Lincoln's phrase in his 2011 The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Much of Pinker's work is grim reading as he carefully analyzes human violence over the centuries. Yet, his thesis is that violence has, in fact declined, and that this is in part because for the last 500 years humanity has gradually strengthened its "better angels"—virtues that make for civility, peace, and less violence. Pinker does not choose Dickens "heavenly constellations" but rather chooses the better angels of empathy, self-control, moral sense, and reason. No matter, for Shakepeare's better angel of a restraint on vengeance, Dickens' better angels of charity, forbearance, universal love and mercy, Lincoln's better angels to foster unity at the outbreak of the Civil War, and Pinker's better angels of empathy, self-control, moral sense, and reason, all point to the same deeply spiritual truth.
We human animals have been gifted with a nature susceptible to both inner demons and better angels, and much depends on the choices we make as to whether our individual lives, our families, and our societies are shaped by angels or demons.
Some years are more difficult than others. We have just passed through a very difficult year. It was a year when the brightness of our better angels was eclipsed by the shadows of our desires. It was a year when the inner demons of hatred, racism, misogyny, and fear were given national prominence on a daily basis.
The year to come has the promise to be at least as difficult a year. When Lincoln gave his First Inaugural, I doubt that he could imagine the sheer brutality, bloodshed, waste, and destruction that was to become the next four years. Perhaps it's a mercy that we can't see the future. Yet, his speech did exhibit a hope, that despite the current circumstances, in the end our better angels would prevail.
Over this past weekend, I was at the University Faculty Senate (I am a senator) where, for both the Presidential Inauguration and the Women's March, I was ensconced in a room with about 70 others. I was hearted as we worked together for the future good of our university—SUNY happens to be the largest university system with 64 campuses and a half million students. It was an exercise of working with our better angels. We passed resolutions against discrimination, supporting transgender health care on college campuses, and agreed with other universities around the country that our campuses be considered sanctuary campuses for undocumented students. Our resolutions were not far from Dickens' charity, forbearance, universal love and mercy. Such work is the way to overcome the shadows of selfishness and "me first," "us first" mentality.
I was heartened too by the phenomenal Women's Marches all around the United States and major cities across the word. Jane took part in the March of 10,000 in our little city of Ithaca. If I had not been doing the important work of the senate, I would have been there too. I was delighted that my Facebook page was flooded with pictures of the millions who on Saturday resisted hatred and fear. So much hope. So much love.
Resolved: to be touched again by the better angels of our nature: charity, forbearance, universal love and mercy; empathy, self-control, moral sense, and reason.
+Ab. Andy