Happy Presidents Day!

I hope that wherever you are you stayed safe during the recent spate of storms, and were able to use the long weekend to rest up. It’s been a heck of a week.

Midcoast resident Heather D. Martin wants to know what’s on your mind; email her at heather@heatherdmartin.com.

A quick note about this holiday; it started out as the celebration of one president, our first. That, of course, is George Washington.

The holiday began in the 1880s to commemorate Washington’s birthday. Fun fact; Washington has two different recorded birthdates. Wild. It is recorded both as Feb. 11 and Feb. 22. Why? A change in calendars? You all know time is a pet topic of mine and here it is again, changing things up. History.

In 1752, the colonies (as we were then) followed Great Britain’s lead in changing from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar – and that meant leaping ahead two weeks. We went from Sept. 4 to Sept. 11 in one fell swoop.

OK, but where was I? Right, the holiday.

So, for nearly 100 years, we celebrated the holiday of Washington’s birthday. With good cause. He was a really interesting man.

This was a man who answered the call of a fledgling (and unlikely to win) democracy. He served as a bold, brave and dogged general, enduring hardships and misery as he led the revolutionary army to victory. Then, at the absolute top of his popularity and fame – when the uncertain new nation offered him tremendous power – he refused it.

For Washington, the idea of what democracy was supposed to be mattered far more than his own personal gain. He retired. He was called back to serve again as president – and then, when his service was done, walked away once again. Even as he was offered nearly unlimited authority.

George Washington understood the greater good, and what was required for a government to be “of the people, by the people and for the people” – a sentiment coined by the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln is another fascinating human. In fact, when friends play that game “what famous person would you invite to dinner?” I never say “Lincoln” because it sounds stupid and trite… but that’s who I think of. He’s just so interesting.

Here is a man whose own life was filled with hardship, sadness and, as far as I can tell, precious little of what, for lack of a better term, I shall call “ease” – and yet he dedicated his life to the betterment of others.

Lincoln thought big thoughts. He listened to others. He made a dedication to understanding viewpoints different from his own. He ensured his cabinet was filled with people whose outlook, ideas and beliefs were not identical to his precisely so that he would be challenged, opposed and made to genuinely think about the overall question before him.

So, when in 1968 the holiday became a smooshed-together morphing of the birthdays of Washington (Feb. 11 or 22, depending) and Lincoln (Feb. 12) it just made sense. In the years after, it has expanded even farther to be a general celebration of presidents which, well, seems to me they were big-hearted men who probably wouldn’t mind.

This year, though, perhaps we can all take a moment and get back to the basics. To the root of the holiday and think about the examples set by these two particular presidents.

I speak here of the ideals of democracy which serves the people, which looks to what is best for the nation – and that the nation is made of individuals, each of whom is promised “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in this experiment I hope we are still running. That we celebrate the idea of dedication of the self to serving a larger good, and that part of that is doing the work for the sake of the nation, not the sake of the self. That never again should we wear the yoke of a monarchy.