Thursday, February 12, 2009

Happy 200th Birthday, Incredibly Historic Person of Choice! *kazoo*

Today is both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Do you know what that means? That means that Charles Darwin, and Abraham Lincoln were born on THE SAME DAY. I don't know about you, but that completely blows my mind. It seems strange to me that there are a bunch of people celebrating one, and a bunch of people celebrating the other, and not very many people celebrating them both. I don't really know a lot about either, but I feel like saying a few words about both.

Lincoln. Well, what can you really say? There really isn't a more famous president in US history. As it turns out, I really don't know anything about him at all, except how he died, but you don't talk about things like that on a man's birthday. Does anyone else think it's poetic that on this man's bicentennial birthday, a man who gets a fair amount of credit for helping to free the slaves, the first black man is doing his old job. Not only that, but he's from Illinois, is extremely charismatic, and took the job at a time of great strife. Now I don't mean droves of American citizens killing each other to defend their ideals, kind of strife, but a lot of people are really scared. It's scary. Happy Birthday Abraham. Thanks for helping us get here. By here, I mean closer to true racial equality, not the strife thing.

Darwin. I read some Darwin in college, and it turns out I'm actually a really big fan. The man was quite silly. He used to toss iguanas into the ocean just to watch them swim back, and ride on the backs of giant tortoises. It's his fault we know that worms are good for the soil, and not just gross pests. When doing experiments he would often solicit his young children to help, and engage them in the learning process. As a parent, I really appreciate that. There's a zoo in Australia owned by the family of the late Crocodile Hunter (who's name escapes me just now) and in that zoo is a tortoise that was found by Charles Darwin. He's met him. I want to meet that tortoise. Happy Birthday Charles. Thanks for helping make our differences make sense.

Gratuitous pictures:



4 Comments:

At 9:47 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I didn't know it was both of their birthdays...that is kinda interesting.

Hey Bridget!

 
At 6:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I didn't know that either!

Eleanor's growing so big!

 
At 9:19 AM, Blogger Amy said...

What a great post! Thank you for your tribute to both of them, and also for posting beautiful pictures of your family.

 
At 2:49 PM, Anonymous Joe said...

thank you for the note bridget :)

 

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