METAPHOR CAN TURN MANIFEST DESTINY INTO an EXPANSION OF OUR BEST TRAITS AND ABILITIES---james k. polk

I've been watching the life portraits of the Presidents from the excellent 1999 C-SPAN series about the Presidents from Washington to Clinton.

Here is a link the to the website of this series. 

I've just finished the episode on the Presidency of James K. Polk of Tennessee.  

Polk served 1845-1849 and was the tenth President. 

Polk is associated with Manifest Destiny and the territorial exposition of the United States. 

(Painting of Polk by George Healy.) 

This fact made me think that we can each engage in an internal Manifest Destiny of a kind of expanding the reach of our best qualities. 

For example, we could expand the reach of our empathy and concern for our fellow human beings in a manner as relentless the spread of American power across the North American continent. 

I'm not suggesting Manifest Destiny was a benign or fully beneficial thing.  I'm just offering a possible use of facts and the circumstances of our history. 

Metaphor is a big part of life.  

With some effort and thought, we can take one thing and make it into something else. 

It is always a good day to be aware of the facts and also to be open to many interpretations and hopeful uses of the facts. 

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