Editor's note: Ron Dorr is a Professor of Rhetoric and Humanities in the James Madison College at Michigan State University. Long before blogs or Facebook were invented, he was chronicling his life in a series of journals. He estimates that he has written in over 100 since he began in 1961. "That small decision was more enduring than much of the public news in 1961," he wrote in an email. "Let me know, however, if you believe that in a day of blogging and partisanship such a phenomenon is too old-fashioned." It's anything but old-fashioned, in my opinion. Here is his essay.

One hundred fifty years ago this month, Abraham Lincoln gave what I consider his finest address. It was more personal and moving than even his best letters of condolence. It was as humane and affirming, amid loss, as the celebrated Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address. It was a model of leave-taking.