not good enough

So, I’m reading a book on Lincoln. I don’t really know when I started to become fascinated with Lincoln, it was probably about 10 years ago when I was living in southern Wisconsin, shortly after I visited the Lincoln historical sites. Since then I’ve read a number of books about him, and became personally offended at the Battle of Franklin historical site when the tour guide said that some people don’t like Lincoln. They don’t *like* him? How could one not think he was the greatest human being on the face of the earth?I’m reading Team of Rivals, about how Lincoln was so brilliant that he chose people for his cabinet who were members of the opposition parties. It’s quite a long book, and spends a lot of time on the people who were in Lincoln’s cabinet.

First up, Chase. He’s from Ohio, and was a strong possibility for the Republican candidacy at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. He lost, though, to Lincoln. Ms. Goodwin describes Chase’s childhood and early career in a very blunt way, and it contrasts sharply with Lincoln’s. Lincoln, as we all knew, grew up in a log cabin with very little money or access to reading material. He devoured what little reading material he found, though. He went to school for about a total of one year, learning everything he knew from reading, and read the law using borrowed books from a local lawyer outside of Springfield. Chase, on the other hand, had many many more opportunities. He studied at a boarding school with an uncle who was the headmaster, with plenty of books on hand, and by the time he was in his early twenties he was in Washington DC. He was teaching school, but was lucky enough to study law under a well-known political figure and lawyer in DC. But he thought this wasn’t good enough. Even then after he became a lawyer and was elected to the Senate, whatever situation he was in just wasn’t good enough.

The author says this a lot about Chase - there were plenty of things in his life that he could be proud of, but he never seemed to think that any of them were good enough. Reading this in contrast to Lincoln’s upbringing makes one realize that sometimes it is an individual’s reaction to the situation that makes it good enough or not good enough. Reading law with a country lawyer was good enough for Lincoln, but reading law with a federal lawyer wasn’t good enough for Chase.

As the books I read are part of my life, I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately in my own situations - any accomplishment or situation is good enough for a person who knows how to view it or use it.

Posted by Marie on December 19th, 2006 under books

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