Insane
Living in the Washington DC metro area has many perks. It is said, that since the area has so many government jobs, it’s “recession-proof.” I’m not too sure of that. I have seen periods when jobs are scarce and you are glad you at least have a job in our area, too. But the overall effects of economic downturns is probably not as severe as it could be in other parts of the country whose areas are less dependent on the government employment.
Two of the biggest disadvantages to living in these area, though, are traffic and security. The traffic part probably can’t be helped. If you have so many jobs, you have so many people who have to get to work. As frustrating as it is at times, it is the nature of the beast.
Ever since 9-11 the security has been a huge issue for our area. A lot of people in this area know or knew someone who worked at the Pentagon when the plane struck that building on 9-11. We really understand the inconvenience, but we also get frustrated with the additional delays that security causes. Still, many of us live with the possibility of a mass attack being able to happen in a moment.
I don’t think too many people go around fearing an attack is going to happen. We just want to be on guard if one does. If a loud noise is heard in the distance, we probably react quicker than most. It may be nothing, but if a loud bang happens, it’s like the whole picture stops. Everyone stops in their tracks. Next they look all around, grab someone’s arm, if they are with someone, and crouch down a little.
The next step is usually to find a path, or a believed path, out of that danger. Or if it is just someone who dropped something or something minor that is making the loud noise, we just laugh about being so scared of nothing. Then we move on with our day either forgetting about the situation or mentioning it in a humorous story to our friends later in the day.
Another good thing about our area is that we are not too prone to natural disasters. Sometimes we do get a hurricane that comes through the area or a big snow storm, but we usually recover pretty quickly. The snow plow may take longer than we want to get our roads cleared or a tornado may sweep down and do a little damage to one section of one of the many towns in our area, but when you look to other parts of the country, and the damage they receive from natural disasters, our area is very lucky.
A few years ago, I was sitting in the plumbing store where I worked at the time. All of a sudden, the whole building began to shake. I thought a plane must have hit the building. My whole world stopped. I did the first thing that came to my mind: I ran outside. I didn’t know if the building was going to explode in a moment’s notice or if it was just going to collapse.
The first thing I noticed when I got outside was that I was by myself. This caused me to feel very bad about myself. What kind of coward was I anyway? I didn’t look around to see if there was anyone I could help out, too. I didn’t yell out for everyone to get out and take cover. No, the first thing I did was run outside to save myself.
The second thing I noticed when I got outside was that the ground was violently shaking. It was like my eyes were out of focus. I might have reasoned, in my panic, that was just because I was scared, but as I looked all around, everything else was shaking, too. A plane didn’t hit the building, we were in the middle of an earthquake.
I’ve lived in this area my whole life and that was the first earthquake I ever felt. It didn’t last very long, but its memory has stayed with me ever since. One of the main things I carry with me about that moment was that feeling that every thought, every emotion, everything I ever knew, left me. Some internal force took over my body and it reacted quicker than I could reason.
Mary Ann was born into a rather rich family in Kentucky. Her father, Robert, was a banker. Her mother was named Elizabeth but everyone called her Eliza. When Mary Ann was six-years-old her mother died. Two years later Robert married another woman named Elizabeth, but everyone called her Betsy.
Being well-to-do, Robert also owned slaves. They lived in an elegant 14-room residence in Lexington, Kentucky. The type of lifestyle she lived in meant that, in addition to living with all the comforts and luxuries of wealthy life, Mary Ann would have also had servants to do the tasks she didn’t want to do or the ones she felt were beneath her.
Mary Ann did not get along at all with her stepmother, Robert’s second wife, Betsy. So Mary Ann was sent to Madame Mantelle’s finishing school. Here she would learned the refined arts. She would learn to speak French fluently. She studied dance, drama, music, and social graces. She became a witty young lady who loved to be part of the crowd. She would also learn the art of politics.
When Mary Ann was about twenty she moved in with her sister and her sister’s husband in Springfield, Illinois. Mary Ann caught the eye of many suitors. With her family’s wealth, her education and her wit, Mary Ann would have been considered a prize by any gentleman.
With all the suitors scrambling to claim her, Mary Ann was especially captured by the tall gentleman lawyer whose confidence in his romantic side was a little lacking. A relationship was started, but one day the tall lawyer called the whole thing off. He got cold feet and the thought of marriage scared him to death.
Somehow the two of them got back together eighteen months later. They weren’t together long when they decided they were going to get married the next day, to the surprise of everyone. No one is absolutely sure why they got married so quickly but nine months later their first child, a son, named Robert, was born.
From all indications, Mary Ann’s marriage was a bit of a struggle. Some claim that neighbors would often hear her angry rage against her husband. Other stories tell of her chasing him down the street in fits of anger. There is even a story, which no one really has a way of confirming, that she once asked her husband to throw another log on the fire. When it took her husband longer that she expected to do the task, she threw a log at him, hitting him in the eye. The husband then had to walk around town with a black eye until it healed.
Mary Ann’s second child, Edward, known as Eddie, was born three years after her first child. Eddie would die when he was about four years old. But around that same time, a third child, William was born. He was called Willie. Three years after that, a fourth son was born and they named him Thomas.
Ironically, Mary Ann’s husband would run for President against one of her former suitors. When her husband was victorious in the Presidential election they headed off to Washington and to the White House. During this time the slavery debate had hit its peak.
Throughout the world’s history, kingdoms have come and kingdoms have gone. Early in the Bible we read of the kingdom of Egypt. God helped the Israelites escape the clutches of that kingdom. There has been the Greek Empire driven by Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the rise of the Third Reich in Germany.
One of the empires mentioned in the Bible was also one of the longest ones in the world’s history. This empire’s off and on appearance probably confused a lot of people. It was the Babylon Empire. Historians have divided their existence into four periods: the Old Babylonian Period, Middle Babylon, Assyrian Period, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
It is toward that last period, the Neo-Babylonian Empire, our Bible story takes place. Nebuchadnezzar II is the ruler of this Empire during the time of our story. The Babylonians had taken many of the Jews captive and took them to Babylon.
One of those captive Jews was a bright young boy named Daniel. You may remember Daniel from the story in which the lions didn’t find him very appetizing and they shut their mouths when he was thrown to them for dinner. Nebuchadnezzar was pretty fond of Daniel and it broke his heart that he was tricked into having Daniel thrown to the lions. Great relief overcame him when, the next day, Daniel was safe and sound.
Mary Ann was probably one of the most disliked First Ladies in our history. Most of the Washington insiders were from the North and having this woman, whose parents owned slaves, and who had several step-brothers fighting for the Confederacy did not endear her to too many folks.
Mary Ann had long since dropped the Ann from her name. Today we refer to her as Mary Todd Lincoln, but she simply went by the name Mary Lincoln. She helped transform her husband, Abraham, from a backwoodsman to a man who was quite able to socialize in the political world.
At one time she dated Stephen Douglas, a Lincoln political rival, who was a Democrat. Mary was a Whig, which eventually transformed into the Republican Party. Maybe one of the things that attracted her to Abraham was that he too was a Whig and then a Republican.
While the Lincolns lived in the White House, one of their sons, Willie, died of typhoid fever. Willie was about twelve years old. Mary fell into a deep depression. Many in the North had no sympathy for Mary’s plight. After all, they were sending their sons off to a war that was pretty unpopular and they weren’t returning home either. Why were they being asked to hold their heads up while she didn’t seem to be willing to hold hers up?
Mary also had wild spending habits. She spent like crazy redecorating the White House. Again, we were in the middle of a war and many felt the funds for that could have been better spent. She liked expensive clothing, but what about the poor soldiers in the field whose clothes were the last of their worries.
Then there was Abraham’s battlefield visit to City Point at the invitation of Julia Grant, General Grant’s wife. General Grant personally sent the invitation for President and Mrs. Lincoln to come visit the troops. Lincoln, who always loved visiting the troops, gladly accepted the invitation. Mary came along, too. Shortly after they arrived, Mary threw a fit, and let go a “verbal harangue” when she saw Abraham sitting next to General Ord’s young and beautiful daughter in a carriage ride through the troop review.
Later at dinner, Mary Lincoln went off on Mrs. Grant to the embarrassment of not only Mrs. Grant but everyone around them. Some believe Mrs. Grant never got over the embarrassment and it is one reason she had General Grant turn down the invitation to go to the theatre with the Lincolns on the night he was shot.
When Abraham was shot, with his wife right next to him. Mary would really lose it. Lincoln would be taken across the street from Ford’s Theatre. Mary would stay in a room across the hall but, about every hour, she would travel across the hallway. She would sit next to her dying husband crying loudly and begging him to speak to her. She was so distraught that she did not even attend his funeral.
Daniel became one of Nebuchadnezzar’s most trusted advisors. Nebuchadnezzar almost seems to give up on those advising him on what his dreams meant. He always knows he can turn to Daniel. Daniel will not always tell him what he wants to hear, but his dream interpretations always seem to be correct.
Nebuchadnezzar seems very troubled by his latest dream. In the dream, Nebuchadnezzar sees a mighty tree, a tree that reaches to the sky. The tree also seems to be a shelter for the animals that graze underneath it. A watcher and a “holy one” are talking and the “holy one” demands that the mighty tree be cut down. “Leave only the stump and the roots,” he continues. He also says it will last seven seasons.
The tree seems to be bewildered and becomes like the animals underneath it. Nebuchadnezzar ask Daniel what it all means. Daniel is a little scared because he knows that with a wave of his arm Nebuchadnezzar can have his life taken from him. Daniel knows the dream is not good news for Nebuchadnezzar. What is Daniel to do? Nebuchadnezzar must sense Daniel’s fear for he tells him to not be scared and not to hold back on what he believes the dream means.
Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar the mighty tree that can be seen from anywhere in the world is him. He seems to try to soften the story a little by telling Nebuchadnezzar to not get too worried about the story itself because the ending is the most important part of the story.
Daniel basically tells Nebuchadnezzar that he will become insane for seven years. He will eat grass like the wild animals, but after the seven years is up, Nebuchadnezzar will acknowledge that heaven runs things and his kingdom will be restored to him. Just like the vision, those things came to pass.
Shortly, about six years after Lincoln’s assassination, Mary again would feel death’s sting. Her son Thomas, called Tad, passed away, too. The emotional pains just seemed to keep coming.
Mary’s life seemed to spiral out of control. She became extremely paranoid that poverty would overtake her, yet she kept spending like crazy. Robert, her oldest son, became very frustrated with her and came to believe that the events in her life had caused her to go insane.
In those days, mental disorders were almost considered a crime. Those with them were a danger to society. They were jailed like criminals in asylums. Robert saw his mother’s erratic behavior and felt that his mother needed to be institutionalized. Robert went before a judge and an order was issued for her arrest.
Mary, who was given very little time to form her own defense, was found guilty of insanity. She was committed to a private asylum in Batavia, Illinois. She would attempt suicide. She went to several pharmacies to get the drugs to do her in but they would give her placebos instead.
After “serving” three to four months in the asylum, she was released into the care of her sister in Springfield. It would be a long time before she would even talk to Robert, who at one time was her favorite son, again.
Mary would travel to Europe for four years. She would even briefly take up residence in Pau, France. Shortly after she returned home, she would die in Springfield, Illinois. She was 63 years old.
Events in our lives can overcome us. A panic sets in. Under normal circumstances we might be strong enough to handle them. Not this time. The earth is trembling. Our life seems to be in total turmoil. Worst yet, we have left God out of our daily lives.
Sometimes it is really hard, almost impossible, to give up on our fears. We react. We run. We try to fix things ourselves. We get emotional. We get depressed. Nothing seems to make our lives any better. Things seem so hopeless.
The interesting part of the story of Nebuchadnezzar is the ending. It is in the ending that Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar the answer. And Daniel’s answer simply states that Nebuchadnezzar’s life, or even our life, will not get any better until we acknowledge that heaven runs things, not us.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Thank you that it is You that runs things and not me. In those moments of my deepest despair, help me to realize that it is You who is running things and if I hold Your hand tight enough, You will get me through it. Amen.
