Figure 1 – New Year’s Gate, Heard Farm, Wayland, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2018.
To all my friends and readers, Happy New Year from Hati and Skoll!
It is a traditional time for reflection. So here goes. Last night in the waning hours of 2018 I sat listening to the rain and watching the fire in my fireplace. All was very peaceful. I became quite reflective and went to my library where I pulled down two books – you may remember these rectangular cuboids. The first was the Letters of John and Abigail Adams and the second was Letters of the Century America 1900-1999. The latter was, of course, published on the millennium. I was searching for faith against adversity and I found it.
There was a curious letter by Franklin Roosevelt written on December 17, 1941, just 11 days after America was attacked at Pearl Harbor and declared war on the Empire of Japan. Captain Colin P. Kelly, Jr. was the first American to die in the service of his country after the declaration of war. The letter reads simply.
To the President of the United States in 1956,
I am writing this letter as an act of faith in the destiny of our country. I desire to make a request which I make in full confidence that we shall achieve a glorious victory in the war we are now waging to preserve our democratic way of life.
My request is that you consider the merits of a young American youth of good heritage – Colin P. Kelly, III, for appointment as a candidate in the United States Military Academy at West Point. I make this appeal in behalf of this youth as a token of the nation’s appreciation of the heroic services of his father who met his death in the line of duty at the very outset of the struggle which has thrust upon us by the perfidy of a professed friend.
In the conviction that the service and example of Captain Colin P. Kelly, Jr. will be long remembered, I ask for this consideration in behalf of Colin P. Kelly III.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
In 1956, President Eisenhower did indeed honor Roosevelt’s request.
As I listened to the rain in those waning hours, I found similar letters throughout our national history – people expressing insuppressible and indomitable faith in the truth and the future. I recently noted how often we have been tested, yes as a nation, but really and ultimately as individuals. In particular, I thought of the Great War that led to the downfall of European Imperialism in 1918, the Civil Rights and antiwar movements of fifty years later in 1968, and now again fifty more years further out. History is nothing if not consistent, and an assault on truth is an assault on democracy.
So today I want to offer the gate of Figure 1 as a symbol of the choices that the New Year offers. Wither will it lead us, personally and collectively? Every year and every moment the gate and the path beyond calls us. An army of past souls has passed through these gates as individuals and in collective commonality.
Enter! Do not be afraid. Remember always Edward R. Murrow’s words: “We are not descendents of fearful men.”
Happy New Year to you all, dear friends.
David
Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 122 mm, ISO 800, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/160th sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.