{"id":4390,"date":"2025-02-04T08:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4390"},"modified":"2025-02-04T08:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:02:07","slug":"reach-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/reach-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Reach Out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

During the time John Adams and Thomas Jefferson helped launch America in the 1770s, they became close friends.

But two decades later, as they each took a turn as America\u2019s president, they morphed into bitter enemies.

Adams won the election of 1796, narrowly defeating Jefferson, and thus became the nation\u2019s second chief executive. Jefferson returned the favor in 1800, beating Adams in a contested election that had to be decided by the U.S. Senate.\u00a0

Over time they came to believe the worst about each other.\u00a0Adams was so bitter about the vote that he didn\u2019t even stick around to see Jefferson\u2019s inauguration.\u00a0He and his wife Abigail packed up their things and left town.

That appeared to be the sad end to one of America\u2019s most fruitful political collaborations.\u00a0

But Jefferson and Adams were blessed to have a common friend.\u00a0He was Dr. Benjamin Rush, a fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1811, about 10 years after the big falling out, the doctor approached Jefferson.

Rush suggested that Adams might be open to re-establishing a relationship.

The reconciliation of two of America\u2019s Founding Fathers would be wonderful for the country and a blessing for the whole world, he argued.\u00a0Adams seemed to have softened.\u00a0And time was growing short.\u00a0Would Jefferson be willing to give it a shot?

Jefferson pondered things a while, then put pen to paper.\u00a0

When Adams received the first letter from his old friend he sighed, \u201cI always loved Jefferson, and still love him.\u201d\u00a0According to historian Jon Meacham, \u201cThese eight words were all it took for Jefferson.\u201d\u00a0

Thus began the most remarkable correspondence in American history.\u00a0Over the next 15 years they exchanged 158 letters.\u00a0These days, a motivated teenager might send that many texts in one day.\u00a0But the distance between Adams\u2019 home in Quincy, Massachusetts, and Jefferson\u2019s home at Monticello, Virginia, was more than 600 miles \u2013 a span that had to be traversed by horseback or on foot, sometimes on dirt trails. It took considerable effort to sustain their newfound connection.

Adams famously wrote, \u201cYou and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other.\u201d\u00a0

That they did.

For a decade and a half they worked through some of their most difficult personal obstacles.\u00a0They listened to each other.\u00a0They addressed old wounds with gentler spirits. Along the way they also ruminated on the greatest political, foreign policy, and judicial issues of the day.\u00a0Meacham writes, \u201cThus an ancient friendship, shattered by politics, was restored.\u201d

Incredibly, the two men died on the very same day:\u00a0Tuesday, July 4, 1826, the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the nation\u2019s beginning.\u00a0

You may think you\u2019ve had every good reason to give up on a friendship.\u00a0You may be able to quote chapter and verse about how someone in your life messed things up and let you down. Perhaps today\u2019s political polarization, which is certainly as grievous that of 1800, has led you to vow that you will never again waste time talking to someone so deluded by the Other Side.

But friendships are too rare and beautiful to let slip away just because you think you\u2019re right.\u00a0

\u201cTwo are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!\u201d (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).

So, write the letter.\u00a0Pick up your phone. Send the text. Reach out.\u00a0Make the first move.<\/em>

Or play the role of Benjamin Rush and gently help two people who are estranged from each other imagine the possibility that maybe, just maybe, they might still relate to each other in this world.

Life is too short to walk away from God\u2019s gift of a great friendship.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here During the time John Adams and Thomas Jefferson helped launch America in the 1770s, they became close friends. But two decades later, as they each took a turn as America\u2019s president, they morphed into bitter enemies. Adams won the election of 1796, narrowly defeating Jefferson, and thus became the nation\u2019s second… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[156,192],"class_list":["post-4390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-friendship","tag-reconciliation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4392,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390\/revisions\/4392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}