Lilac

I was going to return to our regularly scheduled programming, but it's difficult to think of much beyond the election today. The first phrase of the paragraph below kept popping into my mind. "With malice toward none, with charity for all..." With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. This is the last paragraph of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, given in March of  1865. In the eight years I've been blogging there have been less than a handful of critical comments out of thousands of comments. In a time of vitriol and rancor Buttercupland remains a place that is neither red or blue, a place where I hope there will be malice toward none and charity and friendship for all. I once thought of naming Buttercupland, Lilac Lane. I love lilacs and perhaps, prophetically it's the gentlest shade of red and blue together. This evening I toast the visitors to Buttercupland. Long may we stay an oasis of kindness and friendship.