There is much more that went on in Abraham Lincoln’s head than most people know about it. In fact, just behind his hairline, in a secret room. Not in his real head. But in the big Lincoln head at Mount Rushmore.
It is true. There is a secret room back there.
The dude who planned, oversaw, and sculpted the Mount Rushmore monument, was name Gutzon Borglum. Now… we could stop the story right there and go into a big segue about why a cute little baby would be saddled with a name like Gutzon Borglum. It sounds like you are talking with peanut butter in your mouth.
Anyway… it took old Gutz about 14 years to complete the thing. But during that time… he was worried, worried, worried. He was troubled … that his great creation… on that 400-foot-long by 500-foot-wide rock canvas…. might someday be cloaked in the mysterious. You know, future generations, not knowing a thing about this thing. What are these big heads? What do they mean. Aliens?. Sort of like us, today, with Stonehenge, and Easter Island.
So his big idea was to make a holy-smoking-big-room which would contain all the information anyone would ever need about the mountain. Not only would it tell about Rushmore… it would also house some notable documents. Like… the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That would explain some things. In fact… a few people might try reading those in present times, yes?
Anyway.
Gutzon Borglum called it the Hall of Records. So in 1938, he started the project. He had workers begin blasting away with dynamite. Right between the eyes. Rushmore, itself, had started 11 years prior…. with the actual carving beginning in 1927. There was just 30 guys working at one time. The U.S. government subsidized most of the cost of labor, which would eventually amount to nearly $1 million.
By 1938, money, and time were running short. And he met a lot of resistance when it came to the big secret room. A lot a flack, in fact. Borglum was adamant about the creation of this room. He wanted a special space, set aside for Mount Rushmore alone. But. The long and short of it… the “higher-ups” snubbed it. And Borglum died in 1941 before the whole of it could be completed.
Today, no visitors are given admittance. It is locked up tight. The room looks ancient, and creepy. The walls have a honeycomb effect, from the dynamite blasting. It is big and stony, and dark. Secret, and unfinished.
Borglum’s descendants would not let the matter drop. So in 1998, the government gave the green light for a couple of big plaques to be lowered into the hole, and I am pretty sure it was capped off. Sealed up. Caput.
Yep. There is a big secret room in Lincoln’s head.
And here is the match-up. We all have secret rooms in our heads. The contents of that room, come and go. It could contain thoughts that we’d never dare share with another; or brilliant ideas which we never see through. It could be a joke, a sorrow, a special wish or interest, or a criticism, an anger or a happiness. It could be anything. But it is specific to us. And only us. We own it… those special thoughts… inside our head. Like Lincoln. Like Borglum.
So whatever goes on there, in our room, just know that we are all human. And we … are perfect just as we are. Brick-head thoughts, and all. In this moment, we are exactly as we are supposed to be. Even if we are just a little bit wonky in the secret room space. And… I guess…. even though we are okay… just as we are… there will always be room to grow.
“Never let hard lessons harden your heart; the hard lessons of life are meant to make you better, not bitter.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart