a little Kerry magic for you on a Tuesday

[ginnyinWI]

I was looking for something "Kerry" to bring you guys today,and found this bit of beautiful writing. JK wrote it Christmas Eve 1968 near the Cambodian border. I took it from Tour of Duty; he had just turned 25 that month. He writes in his typical second-person voice:

"Everything around you is quiet and the only (hum) breaking an otherwise still Southeast Asian morning is the now-high whirl of your engines. All across the river, in splotches of green, are pieces of mangrove that have eroded away from the banks and which are now plying a drifting and uncertain route with the tidal current that sweeps through the (river). It makes you think of the story of the wooden seagull that followed the air currents of the world and that saw the movements of all the world's people below its graceful and motionless wingspan. You wish that you could be transformed into that itinerant nothingness that lets you watch the world pass by with all its gross trimmings but which demands nothing of you. To be free so that you can comment or not comment as you see fit and then just hop on a breeze and be blown restlessly to some new horizon with new hope and strength."

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[TayTay]

1. Sigh! Just Sigh!

O Lord, that is just so sweet. And I love that pic of JK in NH.

You know, every so often I think that I have fallen into Issueland, where everything is about policy and having the right answers and knowing all the possible outcomes and reading every possible book and so forth. Then someone puts up a pic or, in this case, puts up a simply lovely bit of writing and I get all melty.

And whenever I see pics like this I have that overwhelming urge to go back in time and brush the hair out of his eyes. (No, I don't. I want to talk policy with him. Yes, I do, I want to talk about life, circumstance, poetry, European authors and about New England in the fall when it is so beautiful. No that's very girlie. That cannot be me. Yes, it is. No. Yes. Sigh!) I think I am having a mini-LLL moment. Help!

[karynnj]

3. He just looks so vulnerable in that picture

He may be reserved and private - but his face and posture are so expressive (in this picture and many others) they totally give him away.

[ginnyinWI]

4. a melting TayTay--

And I'm right there in a puddle beside you! It's one of those days. Sigh. Well we know it's not healthy to be wonky all of the time! :)
Got to have a little catnip on the side! :) ;)

The Senate isn't meeting this week at all, I guess? So I wonder what our favorite Senator is up to right now.

[TayTay]

9. I haven't heard anything

So I'm assuming that he's out-of-state, probably relaxing somewhere. (Maybe skiing in Idaho or something.) I hope he rests up good, cuz I think more Gannon/Guckert shit is going to hit the fan next week and I want a good voice on the Senate floor talking about it.

Sigh, I do like that pic. There is something very desolate about the NE countryside in Nov/Dec and it magnifies the mood in that pic. It's one of those pics that makes you feel like you want to give comfort. (Silly me. That was a long time ago. But still.)

[karynnj]

2. Beautiful, descriptive, dreamy phrases

It's almost like he was trying to remove himself, at least while writing this or maybe later reading it, from the ugliness and brutality of war. The beauty, gentleness,and peacefulness in this writing are an amazing contrast to the reality of the firefight that was described just pages away.

Passages like this seemed to radiate so much inner beauty and strength. I was impressed that he simply gave Brinkley access to all of these writings without any editorial control. Many segments seemed intensely personal.

I actually regretted having read "TOUR OF DUTY" for a while after the election, because the view it provided of Kerry made the loss far harder than any previous election. I wish a slightly larger percent of the population would have seen that he could have been a fantastic president. This group at least lets me see that I'm not alone.

[ginnyinWI]

6. I know, karyn

This writing shows the perception and sensitivity of a poet. No reason to think that he isn't still the same as he was back then. And I also picked up on that feeling of being trapped and longing to go free. And no wonder!

I finally got time to read Tour of Duty just after the election, and it made me feel a little better, actually. By the time I'd gotten to where he was about 21, I thought, hey, this guy has already had enough fun and accomplishments for a whole lifetime! So it seemed to me that sure, he was losing out on the presidency, but he had already done so much that I felt less sorry for him personally. The heartbreaking part was thinking what the country had lost. But there's still hope that one day he'll get there. :)

[karynnj]

8. Agree that it is the country's and world's loss

It would have been a switch to have a President with such intelligence, compassion and morality.

Like you, I'm amazed with everything Kerry has already done in his life. As a happily married man with children and step children who love and respect him, many close friends, and a career as a Fourth Term accomplished Senator who is well respected by his peers, it seems that other than the Presidency Kerry may have pretty much everything he wanted. Not to mention, few people are born with his combination of intelligence, eloquence, looks, energy, and athletic abilities. (So it's kind of hard to say life has been unfair to him.)

[TayTay]

10. True, true

his not winning was unfair to me. Cuz now I gotta put up with the Boy King for 3 1/2 more years. (Baring dvine intervention.) Kerry has a day job and quite a good one, well suited to his talents. But I weep not for him (as he is quite resilient and will be quite fine) but for me. I really, really, really wanted him to be Pres, for a lot of reasons, least of which would have been watching those Rethugs move out of the WH and the looks on their faces when Kerry moved in. (Sigh! I am not above petty vengeance. Never claimed to be.)

Besides, I think Kerry is going to run again. (Although that still means I have to put up with that idiot * for a while longer, sigh! I think Divine Intervention is not too much to ask when faced with this unsavory fact of life.) And I will find it quite interesting to see what he learned and how he applies what he learned from the last race. That could get extremely interesting, both in the Dem primaries and against the undoubtly awful Son of Rethug that the Pukes put up in '08. I will stay tuned, it might get real good.

[ginnyinWI]

11. being a typically impatient American,

I feel like I already have waited an eternity to get rid of Bush--all through what should have been Al Gore's term, 2001-2005! Now that the thief has stolen and/or cheated and lied himself into another one, and taken it from a man I consider to be an even better candidate, this next four years is going to be impossibly hard to wait through! And unless something happens to change our elections, I will have a hard time allowing myself to work up a lot of hope, even then. The will of the people is being supressed every time we have an election.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. I love John Kerry

So thoughtful and so perceptive. When I read things like this, I just want to cry my eyes out.

[elshiva]

7. Beautiful. Magical.

That picture was taken after he lost he first race for the Congress. It just has a degree of sadness that is appropriate now.