homecoming marine

I am frequently asked if the stories in my books are 'true,' meaning are they 'accurate.' And I always say there is a difference between 'true' and 'truth.' 'True' where a study of people is concerned is a really hard thing to come by. You can get a few facts right, like date and place of birth, but much of the rest is interpretive.

Our efforts towards 'true'--i.e., documentation, citations, evidence, original source--do not belong in childhood in my opinion, and I believe it has weakened us as a people in some ways. We have lost our vision of greatness and as Alfred North Whitehead wrote: "Moral education is impossible apart from the habitual vision of greatness."

The author of 'In Search of Heroes' wrote: "...irreverence, skepticism and mockery permeate the culture to such a degree that it is difficult for young people to have heroes and presenting reality in the classroom is an empty, education goal it if produces disillusioned, dispirited students."

...which I see happening.

So are all the stories in my books 'true?' I can't verify that. I do know the authors of these books were scholars. They did their homework. Even they acknowledge that much had to be filled in from their 'imagination,' but they were clear in their intentions--to build noble and virtuous human beings.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Go with mean people and you think life is mean...with the great, our thoughts and manners easily become great."

I'm trying to give your children some really 'great' souls to hang out with. The 'facts' of their lives can come later when they are mature enough to measure it all in proper balance.

Art credit: Homecoming Marine by Normal Rockwell (artrenewal.org)