one by JK, ("a safe harbor") one about JK (senatorial dinner in Boston)

[MBS]

Apologies if this is a repeat. I didn't see this posted on this forum (though I might have missed the post. . . just did a quick scan), but just in case you didn't see this first time around, here, from the August 29 oped page of the NYT, devoted to convention memories of various democrats (McGovern, Hart, Ferraro,Jackson, Ted Sorensen, Frank Manckiewicz), is John Kerry's chosen memory:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/opinion/29kerry.html

A Safe Harbor


We were together once again on the deck of a boat. Four years ago at the Democratic convention in Boston, I arrived on a ferry with 12 of the men I had served with in Vietnam. As we cruised into Boston Harbor, going from the airport to the Charlestown Navy Yard, I pointed out the sights to my old crewmates: Old Ironsides, the Old North Church, the Hancock Tower.

On the Mekong Delta we had passed the time laughing — and here we were again laughing as the sun cut through gray skies. Someone placed an orange life preserver around the neck of Jim Rassman — the Green Beret I’d pulled from the Bay Hap River — just in case, he joked, the Army guy fell out of the boat again. “I have this problem staying on a boat,” Jim said. Del Sandusky, who had driven PCF-94, teased me by saying that I had saved Jim only because he owed me 12 bucks.

Then Jim said, “Did you even think we’d live through it, much less get to this point?” Things got quiet. No more words were needed.

— JOHN KERRY, a senator from Massachusetts and the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee

Lovely. If only. sigh.

Noticed this in the "Names" page of the July 21 Boston Globe while cleaning out newspapers:
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2008/07/21/no_room_for_gibson/
(you need to scroll down a bit, to second web page, to find this). Davio's is a well-known Boston restaurant. Hmm: Biden was there, and Bob Casey . . wonder why this group. Wonder what they were up to. Wonder if this had any impact on or relation to later VP nomination.

Power lunch
Senator John Kerry and a party of pols lunched at Davio's the other day. Partaking in the private room were fellow US senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, potential Obama veep Joe Biden of Delaware , Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and US Senate candidate Kay Hagan of North Carolina.

[karynnj]

1. How beautifully written and evocative Kerry's piece is

I love how the second paragraph conveys the light hearted giddiness and joy of that period when everything looked so bright. It is great that even as Kerry was on his way to get the nomination for President, Sandusky knew he could tease him and probably got a laugh. This is so different than the "aloof" Kerry portrayed by the Republicans.

Then the one line last paragraph put everything together almost in a prayer of thanksgiving for having survived to that day. How appropriate that even as he started an epic battle, he remembers his group as being grateful for what they had already been given.

(As a Jew, Rassman's words sound like a secular, very personal version of the Jewish prayer, Shehecheyanu, that is said at the important moments or celebrations in one's life.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Shehecheyanu.html )

This also shows again that if Senator Kerry did not have more important work to do trying to save the country and the planet, he really could have been an exceptional author.

[Luftmensch067]

2. As could you, Karynnj, as could you

I love your writing style and this comment was so thoughtful and beautiful, it had me near tears!

[karynnj]

4. Thanks for the complement

though you and many other here are far better at writing.

[Luftmensch067]

3. Wonderful finds -- I would have missed them both!

Thanks for posting, MBS!

I do love the heartfelt simplicity of the convention memory. Karynnj is right -- he paints a picture of lifetime, DEEP friendship and so much emotion in those few, well-chosen words.

I sure would love to have been a fly on the wall at that lunch (nonsense, they don't have flies at Davio's!!!) Even my own Clark Kent, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota was there!!!

[MBS]

5. most of all, what JK's piece shows to me is that he really knows

what matters, and lives by that knowledge.

And, yeah, I too would love to have been a fly on the wall (or the waiter by the tableside) at that lunch!

[Island Blue]

6. Cool, my future senator Kay Hagan

lunching with the heavy hitters! That just made my day.