The Greatest Bow

“Can I tell you what I wish I’d known…”

I couldn’t possibly count the number of times I have seen a bow.  I haven’t paid particular attention to them.  I’m a late 20th century, early 21st century American.  Bowing is rather formal, and we are an informal culture.  It seems that I operate on some egalitarian principle that no one is required to bow to me, and I need not bow to anyone.  When I think of it now, it occurs to me that there is not much to consider.  

William Faulkner said, “[T]he past is not dead.  It is not even past.”  We are fortunate, in a sense, if we can look at it that way.  With this egalitarian principle, which is more imagined than real, we might just as well be in a past that is not gone.  In so doing, we can experience and contemplate a bow the way George Washington might have.  

Now, Washington surely bowed.  It was still a custom in his time.  But, it is an imagined bow that energizes me today.  In the stage production of Hamilton, George Washington executes the most exquisite bow, which for me validates the custom for the first time…and for all time.  The show is wrapping up, and Alexander Hamilton’s widow, Eliza is lamenting the passing of her brilliant husband.  She says that he would have accomplished so much more had he lived.  She states that he could have done more to end slavery had he lived.

The character of George Washington…essentially Washington’s ghost at this time in the production, is proudly standing behind Eliza as she tells Hamilton’s story.  She mentions that she and her sister Angelica raised money and told Washington’s story in order to get the Washington Monument built.  And as she switches to her lament about Hamilton, the character of Washington is surprised, and then humbled by the mention of not doing enough to end slavery.  Washington is suddenly shocked, and then saddened, and bows a sudden, humble acknowledgement of his moral failing.  I have never seen a bow like it.

And that got me to thinking.  You see, I am embarrassed to say that I had never considered what if the United States had abolished slavery when it became a country in 1776.  I have always known that slavery existed in the colonies, and then it was reconciled in the Constitution, 3/5’s, “land of the free…”, and all of that.  We all know how that went down.  It never really crossed my mind to consider what if “WE” had taken the extraordinarily brave step to forgo the status and profit of a slave economy, and make a principled stand on “freedom”, as we had…you know, kind of said that we did.  

I’m mildly embarrassed to say that whenever I watch Washington bow like he does, it brings tears to my eyes.  I feel his humiliation.  For shame, George Washington.  For shame, America.  At the same time, I well up with optimism.  This could be a beginning.  We may be in the process of abolishing slavery in the United States now…in 2020.  We are in the process of a radical tyrant-ectomy.  Much of his support rests on racism, and a barely visible, fully operational caste system which makes some suburban white people, mainly men, to object to a flag, or a demonstration stating “Black Lives Matter.”  “The past is not dead…”. To many, the suggestion that “Black Lives Matter” is offensive.  You know, a lawyer said to me yesterday that BLM was started by Marxists.  A lawyer told me this.  I told him, you know, Marx was a lawyer.  

I feel Washington’s shame, but we don’t have to fail this time.  “It is not even past.”  We can defeat slavery now.  I still well up with tears when I see Washington’s bow.  I also well up with Eliza’s hope and optimism.  These happen simultaneously when I see the greatest bow I have ever seen.   

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