True North

Spoiler Alert: (not really, I just talk about one scene in Lincoln, plus, I don't really think there can be spoiler alerts on movies about history all Americans should have learned in 11th grade).  

I'm not one to go to the movies much.  In fact, I can definitely count on one hand the number of times I went out to see a movie while in grad school.  Even before grad school, I was definitely not a movie type of person.  Rare are the moments when I say, today, I want to go see a movie.  But, Lincoln looked to me like a movie I was going to go out of my way to see. 

And was it worth it.  Given how I just struck my movie critic credibility down in the previous paragraph, I can hardly say that I am the movie critiquing authority, but I'm pretty sure Lincoln was a great film.  There was one scene that I found particularly excellent.   It's a private conversation between Lincoln and the abolitionist Congressman Thaddeus Stevens as the fate of the 13th Amendment begins to appear just within their grasp.  I felt like it summarized a key lesson I've come to realize about my experience in government, my politics and my general approach to life.  

"A compass points to true north,” says Lincoln, “ but it gives no indication of the swamps and marshes along the way.  If you just use the compass you will get stuck, and what use is knowing true north if you are drowned in a swamp?”

Ugh, compromise.  The dirty word compromise.  

Compromise in fact is a dirty thing.  When compromising, you can stray from the truth.  You may say things you don't really want to say, perhaps that you don't really even believe.  It can be ugly and probably result in some things that just shouldn't be out in the public view.  

You know who can often be thought of as the ultimate non-compromisers, martyrs.  Martyrs die for their faith.  They refuse to back down and say something they don't mean, even though they could hypothetically compromise their beliefs and go on to say continue their work caring for the sick or whatever saintly activity they were engaging in.  The world does need martyrs. 

But, I'm not a martyr.  I fall into the compromiser category.  Compromise is exactly what our country was based on.  Democracy requires compromise.  Compromise accepts and embraces the reality that we as a society are better off when there is competition of ideas.  

Of course, I don't really know if Lincoln really said that compass quote.  He probably didn't.  And it was just this topic that when I asked a retiring employee at my office who has seen over twenty-five years of policy and politics she said  that the most valuable thing she learned during her time she said that she learned that change takes time and compromise.  Compromising is simply being patient and accepting that you will get further by taking smaller incremental steps than only being okay with giant leaps.

On a related somewhat related note, I discovered the joy of  word clouding.  So, I did a word cloud of Obama's reelection speech.  Here's to compromise.