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Experiencing is our fundamental activity, and so the quality of our lives depends on the quality of our experience. And the quality of experience depends on state of mind and on depth of concentration. If my life isn’t as satisfying as it could be, is this the fault of my circumstances or of my ability to appreciate them? Is the cause of my discontent internal or external? Are not most of our external conflicts a result of our internal unrest? Much of the time we are so caught up in the content of our lives, the “goodness” or “badness” of what happens to us, that we forget to take any joy in the very fact that we are alive and are able to experience life at all. Regardless of the texture of our lives, we are privileged to be participating in the process called living. Whenever I can see my life from this point of view, I begin to free myself of the pettiness of Self 1 concerns, and to appreciate the best my life has to offer. And with what do I appreciate it? With the gift of awareness, with the quality of my attention, and with the power of my concentration.
Inner Skiing
W. Timothy Gallwey
The president’s next venture in preparing public opinion for the proclamation resting in his desk was more successful. On August 19 the New York Tribune published an open letter to Lincoln by editor Horace Greeley titled “The Prayer of Twenty Millions.” Greeley chastised the president for “a mistaken deference to Rebel Slavery” and urged him to heed the prayers of twenty million loyal Northerners for the abolition of slavery. In an unusual public response, the commander in chief carefully explained: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union by not freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because it helps save the Union.” In closing Lincoln said that these statements represented “my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.”46 This presidential letter was a stroke of genius. To conservatives who insisted that preservation of the Union must be the sole purpose of the war, Lincoln said that such was his purpose. To radicals who wanted him to proclaim emancipation in order to save the Union, he hinted that he might do so. To everyone he made it clear that partial or even total emancipation might become necessary (as of course he thought it had) to accomplish the purpose on which they all agreed. The same intentional ambiguity characterized Lincoln’s interview on September 13 with a group of clergymen who presented him with a petition for emancipation. This event took place at a time of what John Hay described as “fearful anxiety” and “almost unbearable tension” for the commander in chief, who was preoccupied with military crises in Maryland and Kentucky. Lincoln agreed with the delegation that “slavery is the root of the rebellion” and that “emancipation would help us in Europe, and convince them that we are incited by something more than ambition…. And then unquestionably it would weaken the rebels by drawing off their laborers, which is of great importance.” On the other hand, with Confederate armies on the offensive, “what good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do?…I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will necessarily see must be inoperative…. Would my word free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel states?”47
Tried by War
James M. McPherson
And they were so wrong. My philosophy as a baseball operator could not be more simple. It is to create the greatest enjoyment for the greatest number of people. Not by detracting from the ball game but by adding a few moments of fairly simple pleasure. My intention was always to draw people to the park and make baseball fans out of them.
Veeck--as in Wreck
Bill Veeck, Ed Linn
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