Presidents Day

In honor of my 3 day weekend, I watched Burns documentary on Thomas Jefferson; a reluctant public figure, a Renaissance man with interests from architecture to agriculture, and a wine collector.  Near the end of his life Jefferson sold his personal library to the federal government and his collection became the most illustrious piece of the first collection of the Library of Congress.  But beyond the numerous well know accomplishments and shortcomings, one other piece of the documentary interested me.  At the end of his life, almost 50 years after he penned the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson corresponded with Adams about his disappointment in the state of the country and the hope that the new country would not lose its political passion and could sustain its revolutionary idealism.   for generations to come.  More than 200 years later, we can look back and see a continuous struggle with the same hopes and fears.  The fact that many of us worry about America today losing its way in the same way Jefferson worried about the new country gives me a sense of hope.  Over the last 200+ years, we have often be close, but we haven't irrevocably lost our way.  Are we now on our way back from one of those times on the edge?  I hope so.