Today, my boy Hudson is still small enough to fit under my chin as I rock him on my chest.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Not this tide
On Masterpiece Theatre last night there was a movie, called "My Boy Jack," that will either make you want to vote for John McCain, or it will make you not want to vote for John McCain. It had nothing to do with John McCain. It depicts Rudyard Kipling and his son Jack, who, in spite of extremely poor eyesight, was allowed to train as an officer (solely because of his famous father's influence) and, at age seventeen, go off to France to lead men into battle during WWI. Kipling, a staunch supporter of Britain's entry into the war against Germany, gave fiery speeches that inspired young men to enlist in the cause. He was also (according to the movie--it might have been for dramatic effect) part of a committee that received all of the dismal news from the front and decided how it would be disseminated to the public so people wouldn't lose heart. He heard, in excruciating detail, the stories of the annihilation in the trenches and he still encouraged his only son to go in pursuit of valor. So I happened to read an article about John McCain's two youngest sons in the paper yesterday. The elder is a junior at the Naval Academy and the younger is 19 and, as an enlisted Marine, has already served a tour in Iraq. The war at home, indeed.
Today, my boy Hudson is still small enough to fit under my chin as I rock him on my chest.
Today, my boy Hudson is still small enough to fit under my chin as I rock him on my chest.
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4 comments:
Wasn't Kipling's son, the one for whom he wrote the poem "If," killed in the war? I love the way Sarah sits in my lap and still turns her face up for a kiss.
He was. The day after his 18th birthday. The movie focuses on the months that the Kiplings knew that he was missing and "presumed injured." I love "If"--it must've been hard to live up to though. The movie makes it seem as though Jack felt too much of a burden, but that could have been creative license.
hello patti.
my wife put me back in touch with you and i must say this forum beats the UTA student center to hell and back without trying.
it is i, pepe guzman, or mark douglass --- however you please (the fake name has a strange and illustrious history, a tale for another time)
i too saw this PBS offering and was delighted to watch it as my wife bathed and tossed children in to bed. stunning film.
i thought about R. Kipling's brazen determination to put his son in harm's way. i thought about life under a large shadow. i thought about how little i knew when i was eighteen. i thought kipling was a bastard. it's just my opinion, but wow....from the get go everything in me screamed, "hey! hey! dad! dad! don't do it, man."
liam wandered in right as jack and his pop were standing at the taxi waiting to wisk the boy away into harm's way. he could tell it was a rough moment and he asked me why a father would tell his son to do something like that -- looked me right in eyes and asked with concern.
i told him not to worry. i told him i wouldn't ever make him go to battle or allow him to wear a mustache in public.
viva PBS!
Hola Pepe! I am terribly excited to read your book and vow to buy it in hardcover the very day it is released.
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