Rise Up

Isn't it funny how a few bars of music or a particular smell can bring back memories, as vivid as the day they were formed? That happened today, as I was listening to Hamilton. All of a sudden, I was back on my bike ride through the Keys, turquoise as far as the eye could see, except for the slender thread of road stringing its way through the islands between the waves.

Alexander, come back to sleep.

I have an early meeting out of town.
 
It's still dark outside.

I know. I just need to write something down.

Why do you write like you're running out of time?

Shhhh... 

Come back to bed. That would be enough.

I'll be back before you know I'm gone.

Come back to sleep.
 
This meeting's at dawn.

Well, I'm going back to sleep.

Hey. Best of wives and best of women...


It's a peaceful, contented song. Eliza sounds half asleep and Alexander doesn't want to fully rouse her. She wouldn't be happy if she knew what he was writing, even with the salutation, but sometimes... there are things more important than happiness.


Truth. Honor. Justice. Love.


Well... I wouldn't say that Hamilton's accepting the duel was taking a stand for love, but throwing away his shot was.


Burr, my first friend, my enemy
May be the last face I ever see. 
If I throw away my shot, is this how you'll remember me?
What if this bullet is my legacy?

What is a legacy?

It's planting flowers in a garden you never get to see.

I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone else will sing for me.

America, you great, unfinished symphony

You sent for me.

You let me make a difference -

A place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints

And rise up.

Some people look at the chaos in the world around us and they wonder if America's greatness is past. They wonder if our best days are behind us and whether it's time for the screen to go black.

I don't believe it. Not for a moment.

Yes, we've had some rough days. We're probably in for some rougher. Neither candidate is everything one could hope, and a great many of us are starting to think they can't comfortably settle with either. I might or might not be among them. Haven't decided yet. ISIS is running amuck. We've had more mass shootings in this one summer than we usually see in a year. Nobody really seems to be sure who to trust.

But I can tell you this. No matter how dark the days ahead might get, no matter how bleak or hopeless they seem, we'll get through them. There will still be seed time and harvest, marriage and children, and laughter even if it's laughter amid tears.

And, when it's all over... because it all will be over for each of us in our turn, whatever happens in the meantime, I need no better hope than to be able to say with Hamilton:

My love, take your time;

I'll see you on the other side.

Raise a glass to freedom... 

No matter what, I intend to leave a legacy of love and freedom and a world still living, still hoping, still standing strong for love and freedom in my wake. No matter what, I hope when you see a picture of a sun on the horizon, you, like Benjamin Franklin, know that it's the sunrise.