Enough is Never Enough

Some thoughts on Hamilton — the guy and the musical.

I’m a huge ‘Hamilton’ fan. I can’t stop listening to it. I can’t have a single conversation without mentioning it. I’m even reading the Ron Chernow biography that inspired the show.

What’s so captivating about the life of Alexander Hamilton is that his story isn’t really about politics. People aren’t paying thousands of dollars to learn more about his thoughts on America’s financial system.

They’re watching him fight.

Over the course of 2 acts, he fights with the British, argues with sitting presidents, makes enemies of founding fathers, fights the British forces, wins the Revolution, blows up his marriage and fights to put it back together. All while waging a war against himself and his past.

Hamilton had a lot to prove. He was an immigrant. He was poor. He didn’t think he had much to give the world. As I read more about him, it’s clear that Hamilton never thought that he was enough. Despite his success and brilliance, he always needed to have more — to be more.

When it came to his marriage to Eliza Schuyler, he thought he was unworthy of her love. He wrote a letter to her basically saying: don’t marry me if you can’t handle being broke and sad because I can’t give you anything more than this. (See below for the real text.) He believed that their love was circumstantial and dependent on his rise to political power.

This man was brilliant. He was a founding father, a prolific writer, a war hero! He was best buds with George Washington! Designed the financial system for an entire country! Eliza spent 50 years preserving his legacy, crying out “Justice shall be done to memory of my Hamilton!” She was proud of him. Truly proud of him and everything he had created in his 47 years on this planet. And yet, he still deemed himself unworthy of his life, his legacy, and his wife.

And the thing is, this isn’t unique to Hamilton.

We all do this in our own special way.

How much longer are we going to fight before we realize that our gifts and our love are enough? When are we going to get that love is there and readily available to us? All we have to do is look around.

That would be enough.

Rise up, 
Joslyn