Goldwater was before my time. At least his run for the presidency was. I was born in 1966. He made his unsuccessful bid in 1964, but I heard about his campaign from my dad. Dad used to tell me that he realized that he was a conservative for the first time during that election cycle because Goldwater crystallized his thinking about so many things.
As I watched the documentary, I felt such a connection to dad. And then it triggered a memory from 1995. That was the year Dad found a copy of Goldwater’s ground-breaking book called The Conscience of a Conservative while rummaging around in a used book store—as he often did. Dad had read the book during the 60’s and been move greatly by it. He plopped down a quarter for it, inscribed the title page to me, and then began making little comments in the margin throughout the book. When he gave it to me, I felt like he was passing the political torch—but it was so much deeper than that. It was like he was telling me, “This is who I am. Read this.”
I raced to my bookshelf yesterday morning, pulled the book off the shelf, and opened it to read his inscription. Here’s what it said:
[Dear Son, Can you believe I purchased this book for a quarter!! As I reread this book I realized how lucky I was to have seen the results of the last elections! July '95]
I flipped through the rest of the book and read his other comments. I’m so glad he did this, because by doing so it’s as if he’s speaking to me from the grave. So, after that emotional moment, I grabbed my freshly brewed coffee and a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, and headed for my office to do my devotions. The very first words I read were these: “Hear O sons, a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight…” (Proverbs 4:1). Wow. More emotion—and a definite connection.
Then, in the afternoon, a UPS truck pulled up. I thought the delivery man was going to hand me a box that contained books I ordered from Amazon.com last week. Instead, he handed me a big enveloped that contained my next book, The Experience of Christmas. The book will be released officially next week, but this particular copy was my advance copy. (The publisher changed the cover recently. I posted a new picture of the cover in the right hand column.)
Receiving an advance copy of a book you’ve spent so many hours writing leads to so many different emotions. Joy, elation, and satisfaction are the first three that come to mind. But then I think about the people who will never see it—like my dad, and the mood changes a little. Of course, with thoughts of my dad already running through my mind yesterday, he was the first one to come to mind after my first few minutes of bliss.
He wanted to be a writer when he was young, so I would have loved to have seen his face when I handed him a copy. In a way, it would have given me the chance to return the favor by saying, “This is who I am. Read this.”
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