See opening paragraph below and then where I found myself today in Tennessee where the differences between the union and confederate sides were most divisive.
Very interesting thing about past lives is that quite often there are reoccurrences of events. Most likely because there are still lessons being learned from life to life that have similar themes. But perhaps also because some of us are called to return at certain junctures in history to play certain roles. I will give an example here.
As a kid I used to be fascinated by the Civil War. There were a series of films and episodes that used to come on when I was only about 5 or six years old it was called The Rebel; Johnny Yuma. Johnny Yuma is an angry young former Confederate Army soldier drifting through an apparently meaningless existence in the 1860s Wild West. While in search of his identity, he defends people from hostile Indians, crooked land developers, and evil ranchers.
Because we i lived right next door to my Fathers father I used to tell my grandfather that I wanted to see it every week. I loved that show. A few years later when I was an early adolescence i used to feel very uncomfortable about the cloth on the shirt on my right chest I asked my mother what was wrong with me and if I could see a doctor about it. She shrugged it off. As I kept asking her about it she decided to take me to a doctor. The doctor said there was nothing wrong with me and at that point the memory was somewhat forgotten. However for many years after I was always interested in films on Lincoln and the Civil War as for instance Gettysburg and Lincoln films. After some time I noticed that my father also had a strong reaction to what happened at that time. He lived in two large plantation styled houses and the second one was built to his specifications. I went to his home quite often and it had a long trail somewhat like you would see in the south pre-civil war years... with large pillars from the top of the house to the bottom on the porch.
I knocked on the large two doors on the porch and he let me in. I saw something there that really set my mind reeling. There was a large podium right inside the door. And on it were two large books. One was ‘The History of the Civil War’ and the second was ‘Gone with the Wind’. I asked him: “Dad what is this fascination you have with the Civil War?” He suddenly went into a tizzy and told me that Abraham Lincoln “betrayed the south.” And in somewhat the same language you hear today, he used disparaging remarks about black people, he said that Lincoln betrayed the south because he told the confederacy “he would let them keep their slaves for one more generation” but reneged on the deal.
To be continued...
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