Snow Day?

I hope so. We shall see. It's been snowing since about 5:30 p.m. here and we are supposed to get 4-7 inches by morning. This is so exciting!

Tonight we went to see The Rivalry at Ford's Theatre. It's a play about the Lincoln-Douglas debates that was written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination. Four thumbs way up; it was excellent! The actor who played Lincoln looked just like him. There was this neat part at the end where the Lincoln actor said his lines (from one of Lincoln's speeches) offstage and they lit up the box where Lincoln was sitting when he was shot--very powerful. I am so glad we got to go.

Sometimes I forget that Lincoln was a very humble person. I usually picture him as this larger-than-life politician and union-preserver, but in reality--and this was demonstrated very well in the play--he lacked formal education and social status; he was really just a farm boy from Illinois. Much of the play also focused on the issue of slavery, which made me think about how far our country has come since the mid-nineteenth century. Sometimes it seems like our country is divided now, but back then it was really split. That was pretty encouraging; if we can get through something as wrenching and divisive as slavery, we can certainly overcome our petty differences now.

I can't find my favorite picture of the half-finished capitol dome, so this one will have to suffice.In my studies of how to give capitol tours, I learned that the new dome was placed during the Civil War. Lincoln insisted that the work continue to show that the United States would continue. This picture is actually from Lincoln's first inaugural address.

There, I am done musing about Abraham Lincoln.

Hopefully it will keep snowing!