me vs we

Gn 19:14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his daughters, ‘Get up and leave this place,’ he told them; ‘the LORD is about to destroy the city.’ But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

13 May 2011

Dear Anne,

“The Lord’s love for us is strong; the LORD is faithful forever. Halleluja!” Ps 117

Bobby’s shelf of books includes Farther than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook by Martin Pugort, Creeds Law by Kerry Newcomb, Revenge of the Mountain Men by William W. Johnstone, Boone’s Lick by Larry McMurtry, Longarm and the Heiress by Tabor Evans, Hondo by Louis L’Amour, as well as Milo Talon and May There Be a Road; The Devil Gun by JT Edson, Max Brand’s Pleasant Jim and Elmer Kelton’s Stand Proud. Then there’s High Druid of Shannaru Straken by Terry Brooks and The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.

We’ve just been let out for the extension hour given Friday and Saturday nights. Bobby: “Now TO’s dead. They was gonna give him to the count of ten. Dude got to eight and shot him.’ He reads Gunn by Jory Sherman. Earlier he had told me the plot of how it’s Gunn versus a whole group. They resort to tactics like torture to get Gunn’s whereabouts. The friend who was captured tells them to go to hell. Under the torture he nods and nods so they take out his gag and he tells a lie that’s close to the truth: where Gunn used to be and where the group knew he used to be. But they hold on to him and when they get back they give him one last chance or else death, being kicked by a horse. He says, go to hell!

Anne, themes of individual courage fill these books, at the expense of the collective. Here, a whole group is no match for the individual. Unless, that is, the individual’s strength comes from something greater than himself. In this case the friend so loves Gunn he would accept his own death before he surrendered Gunn’s hideout. What greater love is there than a man who would lay his own life down for a friend? Where do you see the Guantanamo detainee in the story?

Chris