Personally, I’ve had an effect from the development of my module on Abraham Lincoln and the One-Armed Man. It’s fundamentally changed the way I perceive the Gettysburg Address. All the way up to the point of several weeks ago, I simply thought of the Gettysburg Address as a national historical moment. It was a point on the timeline of the nation’s Civil War, albeit one of enormous significance and meaning. I was interested in it.

Now, however, it’s different. I retain my interest and national awareness. But there’s a new layer underneath the thing, like unearthing a foundation long hidden under inches of soil and rock. The event is not just Lincoln speaking about the meaning of the war for the nation. It’s also about a collection of individual people, whose lives were joined for the thinnest slice of time. And it’s about how this slice became a thread and becomes a vein, running through, over, and beneath millions of lives–and deaths.

I’ll likely add to this new personal feel as the months roll by. It started with the One-Armed Man. If you’ll permit me, I close with this: thank God for him.