America: The Heartland Experience You Cannot Miss

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is as American as America gets.

As I continued my journey along Route 66, I stopped in Springfield, Illinois. Springfield is the capital of Illinois. It’s not exactly the middle of the country, but it sure does feel like the heartland.

And it’s a heartening place to visit, unlike many of the wide open pockets of poverty I’d seen on my road trip from Santa Monica, California so far.

I felt at home in Springfield, as though I’d finally landed in America itself

The Abraham Lincoln site seemed like some manifestation of the idealized America I’d been taught in primary school. Incomplete and biased as that vision of America may have been, one of the things it conveyed was that there have been good people in America, even during bad times.

Also, Springfield and its Abraham Lincoln presidential library and museum looked nice and old-timey, in a restored and maintained kind of way. Instead of run-down and old, in a decaying and faded kind of way.

The highlight of my tour was Abraham Lincoln’s family home there. The people I toured with also seemed quintessentially American. Respectful, not reverent. Curious, not rude. Amazed, not awed. All in all, informal, not casual.

And the summer day seemed like old-timey America too. 95 degrees. Blue skies, white clouds, the hissing and humming of insects on green lawns, the sounds of hot and lazy birds, the muffled background of a few cars in a quiet neighborhood.

The house is set in an historic neighborhood of homes from Lincoln’s time. There’s a park. The capitol and downtown are just a few blocks away.

It’s as though everything that currently divides us is put aside for a few blessed moments so that we can somberly consider the sacrifices made during other times, when the hatreds and the passions and the lusts for money and power almost destroyed us forever.

A Momentary Respite

Maybe none of this appeals to you. Maybe the very idea of a momentary respite from the problems in America offends you. Maybe you want more yelling and fighting and suffering for the Americans you despise.

I kinda feel you. But the chance to shut up and listen, learn, remember, and reflect was one of the most valuable of my road trip. Just considering how the USA has had very good times in the past and very very bad times helps put everything in perspective.

The perspective history gives one, as Heather Cox Richardson often points out, is comforting, and hopeful. And it is likely necessary to belief in a better future. And these days we very much need to believe in a better future.