A Gentle Strength

Image Credit - Jame Lee Burke

He showered and shaved and dressed and went out to the horse lot to clean off the top of the tank for his foxtrotters and to fill it with fresh water. On the lip of the tank, he had constructed a safety “ladder” out of chicken wire for field mice and squirrels who, during drought or severe heat spells, would otherwise climb up the water pipe onto the tank’s edge in order to drink and fall in and drown. The chicken wire was molded over the aluminum rim, extending into the water, so small animals could climb back out. While Hackberry skimmed bird feathers and bits of hay off the tank’s surface, his two foxtrotters kept nuzzling him, breathing warmly on his neck, nipping at his shirt when he paid them no mind. - Hackberry Holland

I have been listening to several audiobooks on my commute to work and back.  I just finished several by one of my favorite authors, James Lee Burke.  He's one of my favorites because his writing is so descriptive and because he lives only an hour and a half from me, many of the things and places and experiences he writes about hits close to home - literally.

The interesting thing about his books are the protagonists, Dave Robicheaux in one series, and Hackberry Holland, in another are heroes.  They are not heroes without flaws.  They both have a past and have regrets for things they've done.  But their stories are about redemption and what they are doing in the here and now to live their lives the best they can for their families or those around them.

If you watch any television at all, especially commercials, men are portrayed as the bumbling idiots who get constant eye-rolls from their wives or children.  Other times men are cast as hard as steel, violent types.  Or it goes to the other extreme where men are shown as the limp-wristed weaklings who sit around in pajamas sipping coffee.

I realize that those are just portrayals from television and you can't believe everything you see on television.  However, I hold to the notion that impressionable young people are watching TV and are getting the wrong idea of what it means to be a man.  The problem is exacerbated if there is no man in the home to provide guidance, instruction and mentoring and modeling of who a man is and how he should conduct himself.

So back to the quote from Hackberry Holland above which really made me stop and think - the part about Sheriff Holland building a "safety ladder" out of chicken wire so that little critters that fell in the tank when trying to get a drink didn't drown.  I don't think James Lee Burke put that in the book by mistake.  I think he was trying to show a good balance of manhood.  Here is Hackberry Holland, sheriff of a small border town who carries a .45 and administers justice and has put many an evil-doer in the grave when they confront him with a weapon.  He protects the innocent and puts his life in danger quite frequently.  He's tough.  He has grit and determination.  On the other hand, back on his ranch, in the tank beneath his windmill, he's fashioned chicken wire escape ladders to save the lives of field mice and squirrels.

I like the balance - a man who is tough as nails.  A man's man who isn't perfect, but strives to do better each day.  Also, this man has a gentle side that doesn't make him weak.  It is a gentle strength that is a truly admirable quality.