Saturday, May 28, 2011

Tough guy















In meetings I frequently hear the
comment, "I'm John Wayne-ing it."
Though the speaker of this
ambiguous cliché intends to convey that he is
struggling through his sobriety journey
without the help of others and
despite the grammatically annoying sin of 
using a noun as a verb, these words always
bring to mind my mother's father
who for much of my childhood
was compared to this venerable public
figure, like they were both some
sort of model of manliness, cowboy values,
mom-and-American-pie and godliness. 
I don't know much about
JW's life, but I do know that the
other man was a creepy, molesting
abusive alcoholic whom I wouldn't 
hold up as a model of anything
except how not to be. 
The only emotion he inspires in
me is the gratitude that I am not
like him and that I have a way of
life that makes that possible every
single day.

(Written and posted for Short Story Slam - Week 2 on Bluebell Books Blog.)

5 comments:

  1. dynamic words.
    well conveyed character.
    Cheers.
    Glad that image has some muses in you.

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  2. Powerful words ! I like the tone of honesty in your piece ~ you pulled no punches , simply said it as it is ...
    ~MISH~
    http://writer-in-transit.co.za/bluebell-sss-prompt-no-2-man-horse/

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  3. It's bittersweet to find gratitude in places like this, isn't it?

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  4. A fantastic write on how celebrity attributes impressed upon another does not really describe the true persona of that person - sadly the so.

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  5. Powerful write, I'd swear you were talking about my father for the description

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