In Remembrance

I recently read a line from a poem that seemed very appropriate to the occasion, the funeral of my father-in-law.  It simply stated, “And his life, like his furrows, ran straight and true.”  The sentiment was reinforced by someone my wife met at the after-service luncheon.  He, the son of an implement dealer told her of a conversation he’d overheard them having when he was just five years old.  Adam bought much of his farm machinery from this dealer, and the son remembered coming away with the impression that he was a good, honest man.  The boy grew up to take over the dealership, continued dealing with my father-in-law, and related to my wife that he’d never found a reason to change his mind.  What higher tribute can be said?

Another recent death, John McCain’s, is being remembered with high praise, too.  His life and independent spirit always impressed me.  When he received the nomination to run as the Republican candidate against Barack Obama for the presidency, I still believe I might have voted for him, but his sorry choice for a running mate made the decision for me. After all, the vice president is just a heart beat away.  McCain’s decency showed brightly the time a woman said to him she didn’t trust Obama.  “He’s an Arab.”  His response, “No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man” will live long after him.

We’ve learned since his death that Senator McCain was a reading man who favored Ernest Hemingway, especially his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.  He said it was his favorite of all time.  “It instructed me to see the world as it is, with all its corruption and cruelty, and believe it’s worth fighting for anyway, even dying for.  No just cause is futile, even if it is lost, if it helps make the future better than the past.”

Many successful people have recognized the value of reading.  Abraham Lincoln would walk long distances to borrow a book, Warren Buffett reads 500 pages a day saying knowledge from reading builds up like compound interest, LeBron James reads many books and encourages his fellow teammates to do so,  Bill Gates thinks books are the best way to explore new topics, and Oprah Winfrey encourages reading through her book clubs.  

When I look at the sagging shelves in my own book cases, I see a lot of good books that I have read, even though I hate to admit there are many yet to read.  I can chalk up my neglect to tv, daydreaming, laziness, a whole assortment of other distractions, and a hungry stomach that forces me get up to find something to eat.

To list some of the good ones I have read, To Kill a Mockingbird hovers near the top of the list.  The main character and father figure Atticus Finch makes a statement much like the main character says in For Whom the Bell Tolls:  “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”  

I especially liked two books which parallel each other in their theme of rugged independence, Elmer Kelton’s The Good Old Boys and Jack Schaefer’s Monte Walsh.  Both stories feature men who don’t want changes and cannot cope when they do occur.  Cars, roads, fences, and changing philosophies in the cattle industry need fewer men like them.

That takes me back to the lives of my father-in-law, my father, and others of their age.  They were born in the days when horses worked their fields and died in the digital age where computer use and development effects all aspects of life.  But at the end of their lives they didn’t have any idea how to turn on a computer.  To the other extreme, I recently observed a boy come into a newspaper museum who when spotting an old typewriter asked what is that?