Who would you like to have a sit down dinner with living or dead? ©

I am often asked who would I like to have dinner with, either living or dead…My first thought every time is with one or both of my two best friends because we all lead such hectic lives and when I am with them, they make me laugh and it is always joyous… 

However, my second thought  would be Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln did not object to slavery and the war was about the succession of the Southern states from the Union.  State rights vs. Federal doctrine.  At the beginning of his presidency, he originally thought slavery should remain to help rebuild the South after the war, however, with pressure and posturing from various congressional leaders and with conversations with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln he started to change, but this took several years into his presidency for him to come around.  

His Emancipation Proclamation came after much thought and I would like to chat with him as to his thinking process.  He wasn’t a particularly religious fellow, he actually was quite morbid in many ways and thought a lot about death, but he did believe in God and knew his time on Earth was limited.  Was his actions to free the slaves to cleanse his soul or as many have written, just for his political positioning and re-election? 

What was his moral compass?  And what is yours?  I often think when people do what they do: the Katherine and Louis Kealohas, the Hitlers, the Putins, even the Mother Theresas, what are their motivations…

As I approach my milestone birthday on Monday, I think more and more about my own thoughts and motivations, and I leave you with this; Life is short, when you are in your twenties, you are fearless, in your forties, you are working on security, family, and positions, and in your sixties, you become a bit fearful…you are realizing you are in the last chapter of your life (20-30 years) and if your time on Earth has mattered…

So make sure you matter, make sure your compass is set, and at the end of the day you have done enough and communicated to everyone you meet that you are who you are and years or centuries later we don’t have to keep wondering what you really were thinking and wanted in life…