Abraham and the Buddha

I continued my Jake Doe Journey heading east out of Albany toward rural Vermont. It’s always a sad shock to this proud Southerner to witness the tidiness and the beauty of the New England countryside. Yes, there seems to be more personal pride by New Englanders in neatly maintaining their land. There’s hardly any litter. And broken-down cars are normally towed away or hidden on the back of the property, not left to rust in the front yard like many a rural Southern neighbor. 

I made two memorable stops in my travels that Jake did not have time to make as he sped across Vermont and New Hampshire on his way to Ember Road. My two stops? Abraham and the Buddha. I was torn on which photo to use in the caption, but my favorite President and historical figure won out. I don’t think my decision to give Honest Abe the headline disturbed the Buddha one bit.

Jake Doe Burning Bright: A bust of Abraham Lincoln from Robert Todd Lincoln’s home at Hildene.

My first stop was with the Buddha. In the woods outside Grafton, New York, Jun Yasada, a Japanese Buddhist nun from the Nipponzan Myohoji order, received donated land from a man named Hank Hazelton in 1983 and constructed the Grafton Peace Pagoda, a living prayer to world peace. The 100-foot tall, domed monument is built from concrete and finished with a bright white stucco. My research reveald that it was all volunteer labor that constructed the dome back in 1993. It’s a beautiful, peaceful site and the contrast between the dark New York trees and foliage and the bright white finish of the monument is striking. 

A friend asked me if people went there to “worship.” I’ve learned quite a bit about Buddhism over the years and—at least the sects and practices I’m most familiar with—don’t really worship the Buddha or any type of Creator deity. I told my friend that as a living prayer to world peace, the site serves more as a hopeful reminder that world peace should be the goal and is within reach. People come to this site from all over the world to meditate and pray on this idea.

Jake Doe would have liked this spot in the woods outside Grafton, New York.

My next stop was a visit to Hildene, Robert Todd Lincoln’s country estate in the valley just south of Manchester, Vermont. Wow! What a place… Robert was Abraham’s only surviving child, and he was twenty-one years old when his father was shot at Ford’s Theater. Robert went on to be a very successful businessman as the CEO of the Pullman Company, the famed manufacturer of luxurious railroad sleeping cars. Hildene has a fully restored Pullman car right there on the Hildene property. 

Robert apparently vowed that if he ever made a lot of money, he would build a country estate in Manchester, Vermont. I understand why. Manchester is situated in the most spectacular of valleys, framed by Green Mountain peaks on both sides. Robert found a prominent hill in the middle of the valley and situated his great house, his observatory, and his formal gardens on a perch with long range views out over the valley to the east. He built the house in 1905 when he was sixty years-old and enjoyed it until his death at age eighty-three. The house is perfectly restored with virtually all the original furniture, pictures, paintings, china, pianos, and much more. Robert installed a player piano in 1908 connected to one thousand organ pipes lining the central stairway of the way. The docent gave me a personal demonstration of the organ playing America the Beautiful. Fantastic!

Meanwhile, upstairs the star of the show was Abe’s iconic stovepipe hat, casually displayed under a block of glass. It was as tall and stiff and rounded as you imagine, but looking closely, I could make out the soft texture of the black felt. What’s the tie-in between Hildene and Jake Doe? More than any other president, Abraham Lincoln took on the task, the mission, to save our country in a time of great crisis.

The story of Jake Doe borrows inspiration from Abraham’s mission for which he made the ultimate sacrifice.

Hildene was a snapshot of a bygone error. But it was also a memorial of sorts to our greatest President, even though he didn’t live to see Robert’s cherished estate. Sadly, Robert’s grandchildren did not have children of their own, so Abraham Lincoln’s lineage ended with the deaths of his great-granddaughter, Peggy Beckwith, in 1973 and his great-grandson, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith in 1985. But the spirit of Abraham Lincoln is very much alive and well in his America. Abraham Lincoln’s struggles and successes have always been fascinating to me and so, at some level, helped to inspire the writing of Jake Doe Burning Bright. I left the Hildene gift shop with a charming, oversized copper penny paperweight that I plan to find a spot for on my writing desk.

And, of course, President Lincoln did make a cameo in my book in one of Trophy Thorne’s funny lines:

Would you bring me back the ball or would you take off like a crazed pup for the Lincoln Memorial?