Tolkien’s time as a combat soldier on the Western Front, and the death of almost all of his male friends by the end of the War, had an immense impact on him. Unless that is clearly understood, it is impossible to understand him.
Thought For The Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
After reading Thomas’ memoir, I thought it gave great insight into the black experience in the Jim Crow south. Regardless of whether one agrees with Thomas’ political or judicial philosophy they could learn a great deal reading My Grandfather’s Son.
Oops, I commented on the wrong post by accident.
I recall Greg, Thomas talking about one of his Grandfather’s neighbors, who Thomas described as a black nationalist, who told him as he headed out into the world: “I don’t want to see you coming back here crying and saying white people were mean to you.” Dealing with the horrible discrimination he had to deal with, for his Grandfather that was a reason to work harder and not to use as an excuse for failing. Thomas describes a world that will in the next few decades slip from living memory, the Jim Crow South, one of several reasons the memoir is a valuable historical source.
There is no more perfect of a filter with which to see clearly through life’s multitude of hazes than experience, the more, the clearer the vision.
One’s own experience can also cloud one’s views. But Tolkien’s observations are correct regardless of one’s experience.
Thomas’ recalls his Grandfather speaking of two kinds of racist by drawing an analogy by contrasting the rattlesnake and the water moccasin. The former you can at least hear before he strikes (the southern racists), but the latter strikes you dead and sleeks away before you know he’s there (the northern racist). Daddy (as Thomas called him) was right.