More Cringe, Please
Was Lincoln cringey?
I learned a new word today. Well, not entirely new to me — it has a contemporary usage that was unclear.
Cringe.
In a thoughtful essay in today’s NY Times, Lydia Polgreen, writes how people are embracing the Indigo Girls today, and why. It has to do with cringe.
But let me start with how my morning quickly became an interesting confluence of thoughts within a matter of a few hours. I am listening to Jon Meecham’s book on Lincoln, And There Was Light on tape, and was doing just that as I ran this morning. It’s fascinating to hear how Lincoln navigated the moral conversations in his time, and how he spoke from the heart and to others’ hearts. I wondered how is it that someone can do that, from the heart, in such a way as others will listen? It takes courage to do that — which Lincoln had — because in many ways, it is easier to be cynical. How does one rise above with words and reach the moral compass of listeners, as Lincoln and Frederick Douglass (and others) did? As in Lincoln’s time, our current political climate is filled with so much anger, hate and divisiveness. Today’s Republican Party is grappling with a segment of people who will not listen to reason. But might they listen if it is presented the right way, a way that is not about reason but something else?
