“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold”

— Matthew 24:12

How do you know when it’s time to “call it quits?” Addictions, overindulgences, hate, telemarketers, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, homelessness, taxes and fees, just surrender. Winners never quit and quitters never win, said Mr. Lombardi and he proved it.

To “quit,” that’s two syllables if you are from the Southern climate or three if your keeper yanks your chain with “quit it.” Latin “quietus” literally, to become quiet or at rest, release, or free if you are ever able to quit. “Sometimes I feel discouraged and deep I feel the pain, there is a balm in Gilead that heals the sin sick soul.” (From a song by Nana Mouskour).

When the Rowan boys decided “to quit” and lay down their guns and swords, most returned home nowhere like they remembered. Most of these men were prevented from obtaining citizenship because they either held office under the Confederate government or had property worth over $20,000. Nineteen men applied for a personal pardon to the president. They included Wm. Atwell, Nathaniel Boyden, Thomas Brown, D.A. Davis, Benjamin Fraley, Jacob Fraley, Wm. Fraley, Paul Helig, Joshua Miller, Robert and Wm. Murphy, James Ramsey, Sam Reeves Jr. and Sam Reeves Sr., John I. Shaver, Levi Trexler, Sibert and W.A. Trott and Obadiah Woodson.

It is interesting to note that there were only 302 males over age 18 in Salisbury in June 1865. A tax of $10 was imposed on ten-pin alleys, public drays, stables, inns or ordinaries, insurance companies, brokers and daguerreotype artists. Licenses for retail liquors were issued to Jack Hall and John Snider at a stand near the Market House; to Calvin Brown in the Boyden House; David Setzer at the Wayside Hospital; and to James Love, Wm. Handy, and Joseph Kelly at “any place in town” The Freedmans Bureau was set up to help former slaves.

Still by April 1877, T.J. Meroney sent a card to the citizens of Salisbury, published in the Carolina Watchman. “In vindication of my character, which I feel has been unjustly assailed, I feel it a duty which I owe to myself and to the good people of Salisbury to whom I am largely indebted for what success I have had in business. It has been charged that it was through my instrumentality that Stoneman and his raiders visited this place in April ’65: that I harbored federal spies during the war. Instead of desiring destruction or injury to the town, I claim that it was mainly thru’ my efforts that the Court House, jail, Dr. Reeves’ Factory and Tobacco, Robert Murphy’s brick store and other property was saved from destruction by Stoneman. If these charges are true, I should feel that I was very ungrateful to the people of Salisbury. It will be remembered that I suspended a flag that hospital supplies were stored in my house. But I did nothing in this time of our great distress, but what I believed was for the best interest of my friends and neighbors and believe they will fully vindicate my conduct. I flatter myself that such charges against me will not be believed by the good people of Salisbury.”

Unrequited love is to make a suitable return to, for a benefit of services or for an injury. How long must we wait? We are born into frustration and some quitters never try. Lance Armstrong thought “Pain is temporary; quitting lasts forever.”

Name something you would like to quit, trivial; like litter or smoking or heart felt like threats, confinement, vicious gossip or crime. So, don’t quit loving yourself, your country, or the world you live in. Pro deo et patria. No matter how woke or how shook, there is work to be done.

“Show thy marvelous loving kindness” (Psalm 17:7). Cease and desist and pretty soon with an early spring, everything will be coming up roses.

Clyde is an artist in Salisbury.