Did you know that the Gettysburg address was only 272 words? Abraham Lincoln could fit a rousing inspiring message that got an entire army to fight for what they believed in and to remind them of why they were fighting in the first place. Amazing, isn't it?
When I was twelve, I memorized the speech for my first debate. I had to pick a President's speech and I chose Lincoln's because I loved making paper impressions with pennies as a four-year-old and that had left a nice, indelible memory in my mind. I did not know what the speech was about at the time but I liked how dignified Lincoln appeared. My brother prepped me for it as I was quite shy at the time and usually had my head in a book. I remember I read the speech really fast and then said, "Can I go back to my book now?"
He told me, "But there's no feeling. You just rattle it off too fast." I thought at the time that it was an insult to the audience's intelligence to slow down. I could not understand why anyone would willingly be slow. Slow was torture. I loved the words. They were so perfect in and of themselves. What else did you need? My mind instantly drifted away to possibilities...I thought that was enough - more than enough. I had already recited the words aloud; the listener did not have to go and find the book and discover it. In a way, I felt sorry for them because they just lost out on the fun of discovery. My brother explained to me however that people all learn differently and that they would actually much prefer if I engaged and showed emotion. He told me I should care more about what people got out of what I was saying than just the words alone. I didn't like it at first but then it made sense to me.
Even today when I lapse into that habit sometimes and go super fast on sharing an idea, his words pop into my head and then I slow down. I usually see a glimmer of understanding on the listener's face and instantly, we both are more connected. We form a rapport. I wait for understanding. The other person shares their thoughts and feelings about what I just said before I share my next idea. It's just a simple thing to do, but a world of difference and really, as my brother taught me, "Your goal isn't just to say these words, it's to be heard."
So here's the 272-word Gettysburg address that Lincoln delivered with emotion, with understanding and with infinite patience. :)
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
- President Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
