Who is Salmon P. Chase?
It’s probably pretty safe to say that you don’t know who Salmon P. Chase is. Don’t beat yourself up over that, though. There’s literally nobody alive today who can say they remember him and probably only a small handful of people who have ever heard of him. And, by the way, I was not part of that small handful until just recently. Also worth noting, that’s not a typo in his name. It is spelled like the fish.
But I digress.
It turns out that the aforementioned Mr. Chase was the Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln. I know what you’re saying. So what? Well, did you know he was the first person to appear on the one-dollar bill? Yep. That’s right. Back then apparently, Treasury Secretary had its perks and Salmon got his mug on the one-dollar bill before Washington. Of course, that was when the bill was first issued back in 1862 but it was also nearly 63 years after George Washington’s death.
The bill was redesigned in 1869 with a portrait of good ole George Washington in the center and a scene of Christopher Columbus on the back. No. We’re not gonna get into the whole Christopher Columbus controversy here. Anyway, since the first dollar bill was issued (the one with Sal on the front), the bill has changed nearly two dozen times. While the design of today’s bill hasn’t changed much since the 1990s, it does serve as evidence that even things as common as the one-dollar bill experience change (pun intended).
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is credited with saying “Everything changes and nothing stands still”. That was later requoted by Plato, some French author with a really long name, a bunch of other people, and is believed to have evolved into the more common “change is the only constant”. And that’s kinda the point this week.
Everything changes and it changes all the time – whether those changes are to priorities, perceptions, direction, or surroundings. Things change and we must change with them. So, embrace change. Welcome it. Roll with it. Recognize that things will change all around you - even to something as common as the one-dollar bill.
