Winter (Christmas Day) Moon of the Winter Solstice
Worked on Jason and Medea in the morning. Kate and I went to see Lincoln in the afternoon. A powerful movie. The most realistic depiction of legislative politics I can recall seeing in a long time, maybe since Advise and Consent, which was a long time ago.
A gritty, dark movie about democracy in a moment of extreme crisis, of a strange but good man tested, the colorful figures in and around Lincoln and in the U.S. House of Representatives at the time. A costume drama and I like costume dramas. But this one has substance.
It brought me to tears several times in the closing minutes, not only around Lincoln’s assassination, but also around the political issue of passing the 13th amendment. An awareness of the difficult, unpretty work necessary to make it happen layered on a contemporary realization of the work undone.
It also made me reflect on how different things might have been had Lincoln not died. I mean reconstruction. Yes, we fought for the freedom of the enslaved, but we also allowed Jim Crow to create new peculiar institutions, delaying that longed for trip to the mountaintop, a trip not yet fully taken thanks to the struggles of the Northern diaspora.
After we ate dinner at Explore China. Mooshu Pork, wonton soup, hot tea.
