An amazing letter

It's been a while I know since I last wrote. Mainly the hiatus has been from taking on some very fun, yet quite exhausting new Daddy tasks. We now have a 3 month old and just when you think you've been given a moment of reprieve to do some geeky stuff like this, lo and behold, the little guy has other ideas for how you spend your time. :)

But, for the time being, I just got the 'memo' that I have about 10 minutes to blog.

Sooo, here goes...

I've finished watching the first of nine episodes of the Ken Burn's series, "The Civil War". It's literally taken me about 3 months to finish just the first DVD of the collection. And my wife has just given me the entire set for my birthday. Can't wait to finish it!


Burns is a master storyteller (see my previous post in February of this year about 'The War'). He knows just how to shrink huge world events down to individual human life sizes, while at the same time giving you reasons to care about these individual human lives.

Case in point is a letter from Sullivan Ballou (Union soldier, lawyer, husband, father, and public servant, to name a few) written to his wife, Sarah, in 1861, before the first battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia. The letter is a beautiful example of both love for another human being, and love for a cause. It is also an amazing entryway into the mindset of someone who was incredibly torn between these two kinds of love.

I think Ballou's letter, and life story, can help those who are struggling with balance in their lives and now to put it in perspective. It certainly has helped me this morning just appreciate what we have here in this country in terms of freedoms, in terms of representative government, and in terms of economic opportunity for those who reside under same said representative government.

I hope you enjoy the letter and the lessons it can teach, as well as the entire Civil War series from Ken Burns.

Drop me a post if you've seen it already or are watching it now. Would love to hear your experiences watching it.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

Drew