January 31, 2019
Good morning friends.
Today on the Almanac we have some hot US Constitutional amendment action, the Top of the Charts is from 1982 and Philosophy 101 talks about the impostors known as success and failure.
THE DAILY ALMANAC
On This Date:
In 1865 – The United States House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This followed the amendment’s passage by the Senate the previous April and sent the measure, which abolishes slavery in the United States, to the several states for ratification. The following day Illinois would become the first state to ratify the amendment and it became law after Georgia ratified it in December.
In 1945 – US Army Private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion in France. The soldiers that shot Slovik weren’t Marksmen of the Year. Of the eleven bullets that hit Slovik (one soldier fired a blank), only four were close enough to the heart to do fatal damage, and the squad was actually preparing to load further rounds in their weapons. Slovik was one of 21,000 soldiers convicted of desertion during War II and one of 49 sentenced to death and the only one to have his sentenced carried out. It was the first execution by the Army for desertion since the Civil War
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1982:
Hot 100 – At This Moment…Billy Vera and the Beaters (2nd of two weeks)
Soul Chart – Candy…Cameo (1st of two weeks)
Country Chart – You Still Move Me…Dan Seal (only week)
Album Chart – Slippery When Wet…Bon Jovi (4th of eight non-consecutive weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,634: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
21.968: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
647: days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed — I well know. For it’s a sign that he tried to surpass himself.
Georges Clemenceau
Failure and success are interesting animals. They are, to a great extent, how we measure the worth of our lives or, more accurately, how we are conditioned to measure the worth of our lives. You set a goal and don’t make it you’ve failed. You reached that goal, your a success.
Us humans, every one of us, were meant to do things. Now, those things differ based on our talents and ambitions, but those that get on in this life try things; they set goals and try to reach them. Sometimes they reach those goals – life’s great prize. Sometimes they don’t – life’s great lesson. And dreams some they will chase until the day they die – life’s great challenge. Their lives transcend the usual measures of success and failure because success and failure are impostors, the construct of outside influences that exist only in relation to one another. Take away the relationship and neither exists.
We dismiss success and failure, too, when we are on our path, when we have the wisdom to know what we were meant to do with our lives and the courage to go and do it and the patience to see it through to the very end. When our time comes to look at our lives all we are left with are the talents we were issued at the birth and the work we put into maximizing those talents. When we’ve done this, we will be looking back on time well spent and a life well lived, the ultimate success.
Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) was prime minister of France from 1906-09 and 1917-20.
Many thanks for reading, and have a good day.
xoxoxo
Kaitlyn