Dear Reader:

As I returned to Summerville yesterday afternoon…I suddenly had an urge for a lemonade on such a beautiful, warm day…and pulled into the McDonalds on Main Street.

It wasn’t until later, while working on a blog, that I noticed the “Half full, Half empty” logo on the cup..McDonalds was definitely drawing the line (literally) where we had either finished half our drink or we still had half to drink.

Ah yes…the old half full/half empty attitude towards life.

Suddenly I imagined a funeral service where two bins were placed on a table by the coffin. Each funeral-goer was given a shiny new penny to place it in the “half-full” or “half empty” containers… according to their perception of the deceased life.

In my visualization…I could see Lincoln’s face on each penny being dropped into one bin or the other. At the end of the service the minister would announce which bin had the most pennies.

How would we be gauged according to this simple Lincoln penny measurement? Would people think we had lead a half- full or half-empty life?

Or was my visualization just a reminder that the “demarcation” line on the cup of life is always changing…depending on how much and how fast we drink of life.

Some days we speed through life without stopping to see any of God’s Handiworks…while other days we slow down and savor the moments of family, friends, and love.

The quality of a fulfilled life isn’t measured by the length of our cup of time…but by the enjoyment of the sips and gulps we take along the way.

This was true of both Abraham Lincoln and his African-American valet, William Johnson. Both died young… Lincoln in his fifties and Johnson only in his twenties. Yet both men, in their own unique way, fulfilled their destiny more than “half full.”

Here is an excerpt from a story on their special relationship I found in a New York Times story written a couple of years ago.

(Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Johnson…By PHILLIP W. MAGNESS and SEBASTIAN PAGE– Feb. 1, 2012)

One day in early 1864, a journalist found Abraham Lincoln busy counting greenbacks. “This, sir, is something out of my usual line,” the president told the reporter, “but a president of the United States has a multiplicity of duties not specified in the Constitution or acts of Congress.” The money belonged to a porter in the Treasury Department who was in the hospital and so ill from smallpox that he could not even draw his pay. The president had collected the outstanding wages himself and was dividing them into envelopes in accordance with the porter’s wishes.

What makes Lincoln’s concern for a low-ranking employee all the more remarkable is that the man was also an African-American.

Today we know little about that man, William H. Johnson. He has no surviving photograph, and we can only speculate as to his age, although there are strong hints that he was at least in his mid-20s. He was, however, very close to the president: the earliest records of him show that he began doing menial jobs for the Lincoln family in Springfield, Ill., around 1860 and soon accompanied them to Washington.

… Within a week of his arrival, Johnson fell victim to the rigid hierarchies of the White House staff, where lighter-skinned servants traditionally received preferential rank and responsibilities. Aware that prejudice had overshadowed Johnson’s ability, the president secured him a messenger’s post at the Treasury Department. “The difference of color between him and the other servants is the cause of our separation,” explained Lincoln. “I have confidence as to his integrity and faithfulness.

Lincoln clearly thought highly of Johnson. Even after Johnson left for the Treasury, Lincoln allowed him to do side work as his barber and valet to eke out a living, wrote him checks to tide him over and apparently trusted him with carrying large sums of money. The president occasionally requested to borrow Johnson’s services from the Treasury for a whole day or two, and Johnson accompanied Lincoln on his famous trip to Gettysburg on Nov. 18, 1863.

Even as Lincoln delivered his address, he was coming down with disease. Most accounts say that Lincoln had varioloid, the milder form of smallpox, but recent research suggests that he actually had a more serious strain and that his life was in very real danger.

Whatever the case, the president recovered; his valet, who tended to Lincoln in those early stages, was not so lucky. Johnson contracted smallpox and died sometime between Jan. 11 and Jan. 28, 1864.

“William is gone,” rued Lincoln to a Washington banker. “I bought a coffin for the poor fellow, and have had to help his family.”

A Treasury clerk later confirmed that the “president had him buried at his expense.” The anecdote reveals Lincoln’s humanity at its best and appeared in a Republican campaign biography later that year, albeit stripped of any hint that Johnson may have contracted the disease from the president.

Today his tombstone bears his name and a word Lincoln had added to it…”CITIZEN.” The symbol of hope that one day our country would acknowledge all men and women of every color as citizens of the United States.

* To see a picture of the tombstone located at Arlington Cemetery….click on this link and scroll to the bottom of the article. Take a minute to read the caption next to it…

Professor Ron Rietveld’s Lincoln Memories

We might look at this story and assess Lincoln’s life as half-full and Johnson’s as half-empty…since he died so young, perhaps contracting the disease as he selflessly tended to the seriously ill president…but if we look closer…these two men’s lives intertwined for a reason…to show society the possibility of a better world. Two halves make a whole…two men who lead fulfilled lives!

So until tomorrow…Let us always be grateful for leaders in every sector of society who conduct themselves with humility, respect, and gratitude for all.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*** Yesterday was a completely “full” day with three wonderful friends (Debbie Baker, Gin-g Edwards, and Honey Burrell)…we spent a day in Walterboro and had a ball! We even got some ‘cat calls’ walking down main street…at our age…it does a girl good!

Had a delicious lunch, went to the Artisan Center and I discovered a whole fence covered in yellow jessamine…and bumblebees!

We decided this little house was just about right (outside the artisan center) for retirement…not much to clean and time to rock. Inside the center was a beautiful palmetto cross!