Lincoln, Melancholy, Mortality

I’ve just read Joshua Wolf Shenk’s cover piece in The Atlantic for October 2005, “Lincoln’s Great Depression,” which tries to deal with Lincoln’s melancholy in terms of modern understandings of psychology, contending that the Great Emancipator’s legacy of successes in dealing the with critical issues facing the nation were directly derived from his way of dealing with depression.

The mysteries of manic/depression have always intrigued me because I, too, deal with such mood swings – never quite so disabling that I could accept self destruction as resolve. I could not let my love for those dependent upon me, and who count on my being around to resort to such resolution.

Was a belief in God a motivation for Lincoln to counter his melancholy with acts of nobility? Shenk touches on that, but not in much depth. "God" can be employed as a figure of speech in dealing with issues of responsibility for one’s existence, but it only provokes me to make a direct approach to it.

Do I believe in a God who presides over all of our thoughts and our actions? I think not. But I don’t dismiss it. Atheism is as much a belief as theism. Agnosticism, in my definition, anyway, dictates that one’s responsibility to self and to others can only be handled by taking all responsibility for one’s self. Thus, the issue of whether a God exists is not essential at all

Death, if it means the total end of one’s “spirit,” his memory, his experience, means only an end to the plagues of life – yes, and the pleasures, too. It will come, and the outcomes will come what may. If there is anything beyond death– which, of course, there is no evidence -- only hope by those who choose to believe. “Whatever will be, will be."

You may interpret this then that I am in truth a Believer inasmuch that I must assume that I can only account for my behavior to myself. Like any other human being, that is far from perfect. If there is a Supreme Being, that has to be enough for him – or her – or it. No rational thought permits any other ending. We would be ascribing human behavior to any God to be vengeful, demanding, condescending. We then should pray to ourselves to amend our behavior, to cease our indiscretions

That is responsibility.

The wish for something beyond the grave undoubtedly is strongly imprinted in all of mankind. I look at myself and laugh at it – and go on ”communicating” with a tiny cat who crawled up on my shoulder every night to give and receive warmth and affection before a veterinarian injected the poison that brought on a peaceful death to end her fading health

An earthquake kills thousands in China. A tsunami wipes out more thousands in Thailand. Shocked? We are that, but the pain of Tammy the cat’s death brings more sorrow.

And I still call the dog, Bo, who died at 14 late last year. He was always there, wherever I was. His affection was simple and enduring. Will he be there when we die? Will the dozens of other pets in my lifetime, as well as the uncles and the cousins whom one reckons up by dozens? If there are no ups and downs in an afterlife, wouldn’t it be the most miserable and boring “perfect” world? Hell is often spoken of with more affection and variety.

Let it be enough to know that we have seeded friends and spouses and children and their children to take up where we leave off, and that will be our legacy – our afterlife.

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