Words That Move And Heal And Lift

Maybe it's because St. Francis is my patron, but I'm feeling sentimental today and enjoyed this post from Peter Schramm about...well, hard to say what it's about, but the immediate context is reading a book in which America has been burned to the ground -- "The frailty of everything revealed at last."

This bleak painting forced me into another coffee and another stogie and I finally turned away from the horror to my love and hope and the upcoming seminar. The political crisis of the 1850’s, giving up the philosophical cause, the apparent hopelessness of it all, the march of logic toward war. But even my moist eyes finally saw Abe’s words rise up from the sorrow and the fear and they began to heal my cracking heart. Wise and firm words, clear and full of right, and always touched by charity. I was reminded that the agony had meaning and he understood it. A remarkable country this, even good for old men with memories. The seminar was good, although I forced myself to use only words that move and heal and lift. Not that hard to do in such a country, with such a man.

Notice that magical word, charity. Even in politics, it's charity that endures.