John Rolf Hecht

[lazariuk]

crap comment Jack, wholly lacking in wit or grace. my guess is you regret it already.

yeah yeah sorry tinder
lion is probably right on that one. I think it was because I wasn't able to put into a clear enough way what I think of Lion and I had some stuff left over that spilled onto you.

on my 6th day of not smoking - smoking has been a 45 year habit so please you and everyone cut me some slack.

Jack

[imaginary friend]

Jack,

Thanks for the link re. JRH, I had never heard of him – which might be just the way he'd like it to be. Understated, quietly building a business empire, and establishing a foundation to share the wealth. Impressive.

I almost added 'understated' when describing the mental picture I formed from your poem.

[Lion of Lions]

Hey Sirloin

I just used up my 500th post... I put it on the Hydra thread and the wine is so great by the way.

then before I go out to a boring party, as apparently I must, I shall go read and respond

have a good evening

Lion

[Lion of Lions]

on my 6th day of not smoking - smoking has been a 45 year habit so please you and everyone cut me some slack.

Jack

don't moan, at least you had your first 25 years healthy and smoke-free before you started that disgusting habit.

[lazariuk]

don't moan, at least you had your first 25 years healthy and smoke-free before you started that disgusting habit.

don't moan ??
why do you think I smoked all those years? It was to get my moan just right.

[Lion of Lions]

don't moan, at least you had your first 25 years healthy and smoke-free before you started that disgusting habit.

don't moan ??
why do you think I smoked all those years? It was to get my moan just right.

yeah and you have drunk all these years just to get your whine right..

[lazariuk]

yeah and you have drunk all these years just to get your whine right..

I think you better leave the jokes to me

[lazariuk]

trying to be helpful in the big picture (as usual).
L

Just want you to know that your comments were read and appreciated. I got a bit overwhelmed by it all and so decided to do a major rewrite. What you wrote is part of what I printed out for consideration.

[tinderella]

Hello again Jack
of course I will cut you some slack

( is that a poem?)

Good luck with the no smoking. I gave them up last century.
That's me finished on here for now. Time to put the feet up and watch a movie and enjoy this wine.

Cheers
Tinders

[Lion of Lions]

yeah and you have drunk all these years just to get your whine right..

I think you better leave the jokes to me

Jeez, that will be the equivalent of the Prohibition era then, a land dry of humour.

[lazariuk]

Jeez, that will be the equivalent of the Prohibition era then, a land dry of humour.

Yes it is a very dry land.

It is the landscape

[lazariuk]

Jack,

Thanks for the link re. JRH, I had never heard of him – which might be just the way he'd like it to be. Understated, quietly building a business empire, and establishing a foundation to share the wealth. Impressive.

I almost added 'understated' when describing the mental picture I formed from your poem.

There is a verse in the song the Partisan

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we'll come from the shadows.

It holds a special meaning for me when i think of John. John was jewish and escaped from Austria while most, if not all, of his family perished in the Holocaust. He said that he owed his escape to the Boy Scouts of America organization. It is people like him who I see as coming from the shadows.

[iveta]

took your diamond to the pawn shop, but the poetry police didnt make it junk

[imaginary friend]

Jack wrote:
John was jewish and escaped from Austria while most, if not all, of his family perished in the Holocaust. He said that he owed his escape to the Boy Scouts of America organization.

Earlier this week, on the way to work, I was listening to an interview with Joe Schlesinger, on (beloved) CBC. As you probably know, Jack, he was a CBC foreign correspondent, well-known for his coverage of both the Vietnam war and the first Gulf war. He is 81 now, and his voice is soft, with just a trace of an accent. Joe S. was a Czech Jew who escaped the war as a child. He and his brother were sent by their parents to a school program for Jewish refugees in Wales, 'until the war is over''. He never saw his parents again. They were killed in the Holocaust. He eventually emigrated to Canada and became a news reporter.

He has this idea of getting to 'the heartbeat' of a story. The interviewer asked him 'How do you know when you've found the heartbeat?' He responded with this story:

"I could tell you a story from the earthquake in Italy. I've [reported on] earthquakes before and after. What you do is you have wide shots of the town, you have medium shots of the ruins and people crying or being dug out, etc., " he said in an interview with CBC News.

"And I saw a group of people around one hole in the ground and there was a little boy in there — you could hear his voice. You couldn't see him. So I decided to forgo all the rest of the day and just stay with that little boy. And they had no tools. There was a lot of arguing…. Italians can be quite voluble."

"I spent most of the day and they finally managed to extricate this little boy. They lifted him out of that hole like a newborn baby. As they do that, we stand there transfixed. This kid was born over again."

(Italics are mine)

[lazariuk]

What I noticed about john when I wasn't engaged in speaking with him was that when he entered a room he had so much integrity other men very quickly became better men.

When I was engaged in speaking with him I was never given any impression that understanding was going to come easy. It seemed that ground had to be covered and later I thought of that ground as being the result of truth being buried deep beneath a thousand years of sleep. He was relaxed about that and patient and words came like a lance that divided clearly what was known from what was thought to be known.

Not once did I ever get a feeling that he was trying to fool me. Never once did I ever get a feeling that he even considered that either of us needed to give up any ground that was rightfully ours. There was never an ounce of sentimentality, never a speck of scorn. I was never given the impression that I had to be wrong to understand where he was right.

When a long time close family friend of his became like a brother to me he confirmed that the way John was you could liken to iron and he would be that way for everyone, but he certainly didn't suffer fools and if one did not turn toward him honestly - they had nothing to turn to.

My first impressions were of a man that stood firm like a mountain against the onslaught of those with small dreams and small means but my last memory told a much different story.

It happened that I was staring out of a window one cold and rainy day in Vancouver when I saw him walking past some of the building that he owned there. It was a walk that had a certain amount of pride in it as he always seemed to take pride in everything he was involved in. There was a bit of judgement in my gaze as I considered that he might have too much pride in too material a way.

Then I saw him arrive at a situation. A street corner with a young mother having to negotiate a large puddle with a young son. John moved so quickly with lifting the boy whose boots must have been filled with water and mud. I thought that the pride that he took in the quality of his clothes might have made him hesitate to help others when the time came but I was wrong. It left a lasting impression.

My last impression was that a mountain can bend for a child.