I posted this on The Last Refuge. It is to honor Andrew Breitbart and my 4th Infantry Combat Rifleman father, Horace Smith.
Yes, certainly Andrew Breitbart is the recently lost father to whom I would dedicate my Father's Day offering . On my 79th Father's Day I offer the words of my literary hero and home-town boy, Thomas Wolfe, writing in Of Time and the River of his own father.
"...the river, the dark immortal river, full of strange tragic time is flowing by us--by us--by us--to the sea.
All this has been upon the earth, and will abide forever. But you are gone; our lives are ruined and broken in the night, our lives are mined below us by the river, our lives are whirled away into the sea and darkness, and we are lost unless you come to give us life again.
Come to us, Father, in the watches of the night, come to us as you always came, bringing to us the invincible sustenance of your strength, the limitless treasure of your bounty, the tremendous structure of your life that will shape all lost and broken things on earth again into a golden pattern of exultancy and joy. Come to us, Father, while the winds howl in the darkness, for October has come again bringing with it huge prophecies of death and life and the great cargo of the men who will return. For we are ruined, lost, and broken if you do not come, and our lives, like rotten chips, are whirled about us onward in darkness to the sea." From page 345 of Of Time and the River, Wolfe, Thomas, Scribner’s 1999.
In my "watches of the night" my long column of strong father's beginning with the Burke County, NC farmer named for the Father of the Constitution, James Madison Smith, appears to me and gives me peace in this troubling time. I've added Andrew Breitbart to them. Thanks.
I posted this on The Last Refuge. It is to honor Andrew Breitbart and my 4th Infantry Combat Rifleman father, Horace Smith.
ReplyDeleteYes, certainly Andrew Breitbart is the recently lost father to whom I would dedicate my Father's Day offering . On my 79th Father's Day I offer the words of my literary hero and home-town boy, Thomas Wolfe, writing in Of Time and the River of his own father.
"...the river, the dark immortal river, full of strange tragic time is flowing by us--by us--by us--to the sea.
All this has been upon the earth, and will abide forever. But you are gone; our lives are ruined and broken in the night, our lives are mined below us by the river, our lives are whirled away into the sea and darkness, and we are lost unless you come to give us life again.
Come to us, Father, in the watches of the night, come to us as you always came, bringing to us the invincible sustenance of your strength, the limitless treasure of your bounty, the tremendous structure of your life that will shape all lost and broken things on earth again into a golden pattern of exultancy and joy. Come to us, Father, while the winds howl in the darkness, for October has come again bringing with it huge prophecies of death and life and the great cargo of the men who will return. For we are ruined, lost, and broken if you do not come, and our lives, like rotten chips, are whirled about us onward in darkness to the sea."
From page 345 of Of Time and the River, Wolfe, Thomas, Scribner’s 1999.
In my "watches of the night" my long column of strong father's beginning with the Burke County, NC farmer named for the Father of the Constitution, James Madison Smith, appears to me and gives me peace in this troubling time. I've added Andrew Breitbart to them. Thanks.
Great post and I love Thomas Wolfe. Check out "Good Old Boys Like Me" on the right side, in case you haven't heard it.
ReplyDeleteLike so many things at this stage of life, that song seems to have become far more powerful than I remember.
ReplyDelete