A Legend Made in Mid-April

Today is a very important day that raises very important questions. It was on this day in 1865 that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. You all know where and how and who and what and you might even know, like me, what play he was watching and what were the last words he heard. But the question is, can I celebrate this day while maintaining my love of Lincoln? Maybe I can observe this day and celebrate his life. That's how it's done, isn't it? Except, is it not also fair to say with Lincoln as with many other greats who are cut down in their prime, that the cutting down is part of what makes them great? I'm not saying Lincoln was important becuase he died, but that his death preserves his greatness and his memory and it made him legendary the way that only an untimely death can. Now he belongs to the ages, doesn't he? Would he belong to them that same way if he died in 1885 from the flu somewhere out of the way and quiet? Of course William McKinley and James A. Garfield also met a similar fate as Mr. Lincoln and have retained non of the popularity or mystique. Was that becuase even their deaths could not lift up uneventful lives? I suppose I just want to know why I love Lincoln the way I do. Maybe I just love the story. Know one really knows Lincoln the man, they know the hero, the legend, the myth, the creation, and then really the story of his life seems only like one that could be written. And so today I'll neither celebrate the death or the life of Lincoln, but the story of it all. The poor log cabin born rail splitter who grew up and saved the country.