IN HONOR OF HOPE

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." ~ Thomas Edison.

Would you agree?

Too true, even for the ordinary everyday things. It’s the old adage: if first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Add as many ‘try’s as you need because the next try might be the one. And it goes hand in hand with where there is a will there is a way.

At the root of this is hope. Don’t give up. Try just one more time. Hope refuses to give up. Sometimes it’s all we have. There’s a strong element of hope in all we attempt and want to achieve. And the Covid-19 pandemic has stretched our hope (as well as many other things) to absolute limits.

We are often reminded that the opposite of hope, or the absence of hope, is despair. If you have ever been in despair you know how painful it is, and the only thing to relieve that pain is hope in some form. Think about what that could be. We cannot live in despair. To exist without hope, that sense of 'no way out of this', is an agony that human beings know only too well leads to dreadful outcomes. 

Another famous quote says: 'There are three things that last: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love'. The three move and act together and are made up of each other.  And they last. It is in the nature of living to hope.

There’s a strong thread of hope wound through The Liberty & Property Legends, too, so much so that I’ve sub-titled Volume Five’s trilogy in hope’s honor.

       

So discover The Liberty & Property Legends Volume Five – A PLACE AMONG HEROES, Book 1: Rise of Hope & Book 2: Return of Hope… the third book in this ‘Hope Trilogy’ is in the works. I hope to have it finished in the not too distant future :) 

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A HERO IS...

The concept (and reality) of heroism is definitely a big part of my family saga, The Liberty & Property Legends, as the title of the current volume would indicate. I think we need heroes, and I believe they rise up naturally, human nature being what it is. And to my way of thinking there are all kinds of heroes and acting in different ways.

American poet and activist Maya Angelou is quoted as saying: "I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people."

So, what's your idea of 'hero'?
What qualities make a hero?
And who are the heroes in your life?

Chicago, May 1886. A time of anarchy in the Gilded Age. Two estranged yet much loved and celebrated heroes of the Alliance reconnect. As each negotiates the unyielding crossroads of their lives, the only signposts left standing are truth and forgiveness. Finding the strength inside yourself to be hero of your own life just might be the most courageous thing you've ever done.

When the world says give up, hope whispers try one more time...

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UNBROKEN

INSIDE THE SAGA: THE SACRED PLEDGE

Over the years, the Taylor family history acquired the affectionate epithet Liberty & Property, a catch cry for, and the deeply-held ideology of, the American Revolution, and Declaration of Independence.

Liberty and Property comes to us from the great English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), considered the Father of Liberalism; he is quoted, Government has no other end, but the preservation of property, and Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.

John Locke (1632-1704)

In HEARTLAND On the Side of Angels, Luke presents his case to the governor under trying circumstances... "I am defending my life, my property and my rights." The governor replies, "A fan of John Locke, I see." Luke had an extremely powerful argument to put before the governor. By his own admission, he firmly believes in liberty and property and the governor respected it.

The American Constitution was founded on Locke's principles. They are born out in the Declaration of Independence (1776):

'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...'

The Declaration goes on to accuse the King of Great Britain of absolute tyranny and proceeds to list the grievous facts of the matter. The Congress then dissolves all political connection to Great Britain and allegiance to the British Crown, and ends with: we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.  A new nation was born.

Pledges are extremely significant in The Legends saga, too. There are several. However, the pledge that concludes the Declaration of Independence is exemplified by the Alliance families as a whole. It isn't written down as such; it is to be found where it was forged, in the friendship between Luke and Mart, and remains unbroken.

Painting by Kenneth Wyatt