How Old Men Ride - A Father's Story

I have been in the world of horses for the past week since my husband and I took our eight year old granddaughter Caitlyn to Texas last week for spring break. An avid horse aficionado, Caitlyn had been asking us to take her to her cousins' ranch near Columbus for the past year. The afternoon finally came last Tuesday when she was able to mount a gentle horse named BJ and ride independently--after a few instructions from her cousin Clayton. We laughed later that night at Clayton's three year old son who, when prompted by all the adults in the house, showed us his version of how "old men ride." He held up his pretend horse reins high under his chin, pursed his lips deeply in concentration, and rode into the sunset.

As I read my selection for book club this week, I realized I was still in the world of "old men riding." The featured story is Andre Dubus' famous piece entitled "A Father's Story." In it the reader is introduced to the fifty-plus year old protagonist Luke Ripley who is a stable owner of thirty horses. He is also a devout Catholic who rides his horse into town each day for Mass. In this story of moral equivocation and relativism, Ripley covers up his daughter's hit and run crime by cleaning the beer bottles from her car, not calling the police to report the accident, and deliberately crashing her car into a tree to cover up the damage from the hit and run. At the end of the story, Luke argues with God, essentially telling Him that had Jesus been a daughter, perhaps God would not have sacrificed Him. The last line says, Luke then goes "with an apple or carrot out to the barn."

Perhaps, because I have been reared in a church for over fifty years myself that believes in strong moral absolutes of right and wrong, I find myself too judgemental over the actions of the father in the Dubus story. I don't think so though. Even Dubus admitted in a discussion of the story that he would not have acted in the same way as Luke. As painful as it might have been to make the correct choice, for his daughter likely a manslaughter charge because of driving while intoxicated, the situation demands the truth.

There is also a third father's view in the story, in addition to Luke's and God's. That is the untold story of the father of the hit and run accident who will never know the truth about his son's dealth. I believe justice always demands truth; it can never be equivocated, no matter how great the temptation to save another. We have to ride into the sunset with a clear conscience.