in gettysburg and vicksburg. this is the day that lincoln is actually notified of the victory at vicksburg and what he does is quickly writes a note to the general who is the general in chief. july 7 of 63 he says major general, we have certain information on the fourth of july. now that the genera general can complete his work so gloriously promoted this far by the literal or the substantial the rebellion will be over. yours truly, abraham lincoln. >> they can wrap up and then believe that the war back will be over but the same day we know that he is expressing his thoughts on the matter and then the daily barrage of the telegrams saying go after, do

something positive. a week after this on july 14, he actually causes the potomac back into virginia which is now west virginia. and the telegram comes saying the president isn't pleased. immediately he comes back and says i'm getting the center of the president hears my recognition from the army. he says no, no. we think you are doing a fine job we just want you to be more aggressive. he sits down and writes a rather scathing letter to the general in a sense i am going to paraphrase, you had then wrap up that you let them slip through your finger. the rebellion is going to go on. he puts it in an envelope and writes on the outside of the envelope and he puts it in his

drawer that letter is at the library of congress. that didn't come to life until well after bottling lincoln but need and he then went to the library of congress and the letter that he does right is much more positive and says he joined the nation and applauding you in the great victory to gettysburg. that is the letter that he did send that this is the one that got the ball rolling. but the kind of positive outlook how happy he is but h that he cd see the end is near and that foreshadows the great disappointment a week later. >> we would all like to say a very heartfelt thank you for having shared this evening with us but i think all of you have seen first of all the kind of

historian and the quality of this extraordinary woman and her work as a historian. we want to talk about her as a historian and that is what we have done. all in all i'm very delighted that you are all here now. those of you that can make amends in the purchasing of at least five copies and distributing the other four. thank you for coming. those of you that haven't had enough history we are come our rating the symposium the 200th anniversary of the trade act of 1898 and the organizations have joined us at the national commemoration of the process. thank you karima. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] spin that i'm concerned about pakistan. i always went pakistan to overcome. i want good relations with the united states but not just out of love for the united states but the love of pakistan. pakistan has to understand and realize as a nation that no other nation can make your site bigger than your neighbor. pakistan needs to be happy with security as long as there is no attack and they have nuclear weapons on the security that they have achieved. now pakistan needs to trade with everybody in the neighborhood and address the dysfunction that 48 percent of the school grade

children who don't go to school and make sure that the population doesn't continue the base that i of it is much faster the economic growth and none of those things can be addressed just by building relations between the american military personality and the pakistani. i have been trying for i guess the last 20 something years to stop writing books. [laughter] i totally get it that i've worked for the ancestors, and i sometimes will field very free when i finished something. i remember finishing the color purple 30 years ago.

i have had that scenario with myself many times thinking i am done. but anyhow, so this book i'm going to read first from a cushion in the road and how that came about, how did i come to think of the life that i lead which when i'm not on the road somewhere, it's so quiet. it's so meditative and so happy with me and my sweetheart who is a musician. one of the ironies of life of course is that i am required so much that i fell in love with a person that plays trumpet. [laughter] life is always just coming to know, telling us who do you

think is in charge? [laughter] did you have some dream that you imagine that you were in charge? >> i will just show you how. so, this is a very short introduction to this book the cushion in the road. i learned much. it has been a comfort to me since i read my first poem which was sitting quietly doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself. to me, this is a perfect part but also from the tradition there is the wanderers home is in the road. a wanderers road is in the home. this is proven true in my life

much to my surprise because i was such a home body. i love being home with my plants and animals. the sun rises and sets a. it is all glorious to me so when i turned 60, i was prepared to bring myself to sit in a cushion and meditation room that i had prepared long ago and never get up. it happened that i was in south korea that here and south korea agrees with me. in fact in that culture, it is understood that when we turned 60, we become eggy. it sounds lick eggy that perhaps this is and how they spell it. and this means that we are free to become once again like a child. we are to rid ourselves of our

terror especially those that we have collected in the world and turn inward into the life of ease of joy. i loved hearing this. what an affirmation of a feeling. i was already beginning to have. enough of the world. where is the grandchild? where is the christian? and so, i began to prepare myself to withdraw from the world. there i sat finally on a cushion in mexico with a splendid view of a fountain with a perfect soothing backdrop to what i thought would be the next and perhaps final 20 years of my life. unlike my great, great, great grandmother who learned to be -- live to be 125 i figured a p. is doing really well.

and then a miracle seemed to be happening. america was about to elect a person of color as its president. my cushion shifted. then an unsuspecting guests left the radio on and i've learned that bombs were falling on the people of gaza. in other unconscious herself had lost five of her daughter's. didn't i have a daughter? what i have wanted to lose her in this way? wasn't i.e. a mother even is reportedly imperfect in that role? well, my cushion began to wobble. i had friends who became eggy and managed to stay eggy. ien beaded them. for me the years following my

60th birthday seemed to be about teaching me something else but i could become lik like a child an and enjoy all of the pleasures of under a child experiences that i would have to attempt to maintain this joy in the actual world as opposed to the meditative universe that i had created with its combing and overflowing fountain. my travels would take me to the celebrations in washington dc where our new president barack obama would be inaugurated. they would care you need the morning after those festivities to faraway burma, myanmar which would lead to much writing. they would take me to thailand for a lovely trip up the river where i could wave happily at the people that smiled back when they were smiled upon. they would take me to gaza and writing about the palestine

israel impact. from the west bank to indiana to all kinds of amazing places. like for instance petra in jordan. who knew? i would find myself raising a nation of chickens in between travel and business to all the people in oakland, where baker. might cushion on the fountain of peace because of my attention to some of the deep suffering in the world sometimes seemed far away. i felt torn. the condition i didn't like or recommend. and then in a dream that came to me there was a long asphalt highway like the one that passed by my grandparents place when i lived with them as an eight and nine year old. my grandfather and i said on the porch in the heat and count the

cars as they whiz by. he chose red cars and i would choose blue or black. it was a sitting on cushions sort i suppose for the two of us because ours could go by and we were perfectly content. perhaps that is why in the dream the solution to my quandary was available. they are in the middle of the perfectly straight highway with a slightly fetid yellow center line that i have known and loved as a child sat by rose colored meditation cushion. derrek lee on the yellow line, right in the middle-of-the-road. so, what do i believe? that i was born to wonder and i was born to sit. to love how was he sometimes almost unbearable affection.

but to be lured out into the world, to see how it is doing as my beloved larger home in paradise. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.

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