I love this cartoon with the head of the big steer on top
being carried from Phoenix to Utah, with parents fighting
all the way...here my dad yelling at mom. Very authentic.
My sister Marge has been reading Dreams of my Father by President
Obama presenting his dad in the best possible way he could,
and wonder if we are doing right by ours. We did the Clyde King
Story, but she was thinking it was too negative and we didn't get
in the book all his accomplishments. He ran three ranches for many years,
kept his cattle herd growing, was an accomplished rancher and business man.
He had a sense of humor and said funny things. He was liked, but he also drank,
cursed and raved. We told of drinking episodes. We think of him as a
drunk, but he didn't drink all the time or he could have never made as much money as he did. The question is...were we fair? Did we tell the best of him? Did we tell all sides? What was the best of him? The worst? Why does this cartoon seem so true?
Dealing with people, we find them so many-sided. Everyone seems to have their worst side...we indulge food, drink, sex, drugs.. and are sometimes out of control. Another side of us becomes religious, educated, thoughtful, generous, and caring. So how to balance all that within one person? How do we show ourselves as balanced individuals? That is my wild cow on top of the truck that I brought up from canyons. My dad did cuss. My mother did cry. LaRae captured it. There is something about writing, about art, about imagination that captures the truth...and holds it dear.
That is about my favorite cartoon of LaRae's, but I think that I play up Daddy's good side in my memoirs, who I related to in my younger years. The guy who just came off from a long marriage of fighting was not the same as the father of my childhood. He had become embittered and quarrelsome to the max. Even though he had not been drinking most of the time. Quarreling for years is not good for the character!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting how different people see people or things differently when they were both at the same location at the same time? I know one of my daughters will recall something that happened when they were young and the other will say I don't remember that at all.
ReplyDeleteI have a great picture of the Wild Steer in the correl. I wish I could put it on this comment. I will have to bring it up on my blog when I can make it work.
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