President Lincoln was noted not only for his genius and physical presence, but also his humor and superb ability to communicate.

His reputation as a man with a unique sense of humor  - a man who used stories and tales to emphasize his viewpoints - is well known.  How important it was to the man himself in terms of helping him hold together under one of the if not the most strenuous periods in US history is not as well known.

There was a time in 1862, when the war between the states was not going very well of the Union side, President Lincoln asked one of his old friends, Congressman Isaac Arnold, to the White House. 

Now, Congressman Arnold assumed that Lincoln had asked him to the White House in order to talk about a particularly disastrous battle in which Northern troops took on huge casualties.  Instead, Lincoln asked Arnold to have a seat, picked up a book written by one of his (Lincoln's) favorite comical writers, and began to read from it aloud!

Arnold listened politely to Lincoln's reading from this book of humor until finally he became distressed enough to say "Mr. President, with the nation burdened by the loss of thousands of our sons, fathers, and brothers, how can you indulge yourself in such levity?"

Without hesitation, Lincoln dropped the book to the floor, looked directly at his friend, tears streaming down his face, his torso heaving with sobs, struggling in reply, "Mr. Arnold, if I could not get some momentary relief from the crushing buren of this office, my heart would break, and I could not carry on." 

That, folks - is what Lincoln was all about.  Some of us run, lift weights, play golf - hell, smoke, drink, etc. Lincoln's main form of stress relief was humor. Somehow, knowing this about the man makes him more real to me.  Lord knows my Sirius radio dial is often tuned to Raw Dog, Blue Collar Radio, or The FoxHole in an effort to blow off some stress.