Great necessities call out great virtues…
                                                       – Abigail Adams

Had the times allowed it, Abigail probably would have been the first former first lady to run for president and personally I don’t doubt she would have made a fine one. Sensible, smart, patient and wise, she provided excellent balance for her husband John who was sometimes as dimwitted as most of us husbands are.

The above came from a letter Abigail wrote to John who was in Philadelphia attending to the formation of our country. The times were momentous and in the same paragraph Abigail encouraged her husband by saying he was living in the time he was meant to live, and that the calm life does not produce great characters.

Great necessities call out great virtues.

We never know what we have until we are obliged to find out. Sometimes we find we are up to the challenge, one of life’s great prizes because every step forward provides a wonderful dividend of confidence. Sometimes we find the challenge was too much for us. This is all right, too, providing an equally valuable lesson because failure is nothing more than a receipt issued by life showing we tried to improve ourselves.

Editor’s Note: Gaylon does not have an encyclopedic knowledge of Abigial and John Adams’ correspondence. The above was taken from David McCullough’s excellent biography of President Adams.

Note: quotes are from Gaylon’s own private stock, stolen from original source materials.

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