Costner: Lincoln

After reading a piece of the published account of the life of our President Lincoln, I am impressed by the man's character in the face of an impoverished upbringing and an ugly visage. Not each and all of us can be pretty, and not all of us know how to develop alternate methods of attraction. I am most interested in the role storytelling played in his life and career. Until I came to the plains, the value of a good story and a good teller was unclear to me; there's no time for such things while adrift in the entertainments of city life back east. I see in my tribal friends, Stand With Fist and Lips That Move, both experts at the art of weaving a yarn, that stories are not just for passing time, not just for fun, but for history, for politics, for persuasion, for making meaning out of all the vicissitudes of life. One can see in Lincoln's gift his rearing in a place not unlike my current locale. He would fit in well with my community here.