A Father, a Son, and the '60s Generation

A MEMOIR  *  MARK T. HARRIS

 
   
 
         

KIDS TALK RADIO: A Father's Day Story

"Mark Harris isn't afraid to go into the dark places, the ones that hold the answers to our deepest questions. He opens himself up, takes us along as he discovers what is hidden within his blood and bones, and helps us find ourselves along the way. And, most important, he is a writer, in the truest sense of the word, making words dance and frolic on the page while bringing us face-to-face with our hopes and fears."

—Jim Warda, author, Where Are We Going So Fast? (Sheed & Wardy, 2001)

"Mark Harris makes potentially impersonal issues and ideas seem very close to the bone. His style seamlessly brings together his own insights and struggles with those of the subjects he is discussing. As a writer, I wish I knew how he does it. But instead all I can do  is enjoy his unique talent in making the world seem real, and in the process , shaping the reality of the world."

—Julia Mossbridge, PhD, author, Unfolding: The Perpetual Science of Your Soul's Work (New World Library, 2001)

"This is the voice of an exceptionally talented writer."

—Robert Redman, Dearborn Publishing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"My father's house shines hard and bright,

It shines like a beacon calling me in the night,

Calling and calling, so cold and alone,

'Cross this dark highway where our sins lie unatoned."

                                                                —Bruce Springsteen

I Want to Change the World: A Father, a Son and the '60s Generation by Mark T. Harris is an evocative family saga of love and loss set against the backdrop of the “generation gap” of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Like the son of fighter pilot Bull Meecham in Pat Conroy's novel, The Great Santini, Harris yearns to be free from his father's overbearing shadow. But when the man suddenly dies in a car accident he finds his wish unexpectedly--and tragically--fulfilled. It's a few days before Christmas in 1975 and Harris is a 22-year-old college student. The son's long-desired “freedom” has instead become a melancholy gift.

     Such is the backdrop to this moving story of one man's journey into and beyond the ravages of the past. As a young man, the author clashes with the older generation over the Vietnam War, emerging in college as a leader of antiwar protests that rock Southern Illinois University in the early 1970s. But nowhere is this clash more pronounced than in his relationship with his own father. A successful businessman, his father Reed's conservative views are emblematic of everything his college-age son considers wrong with America.

     But with his father's death, Harris finds himself embarked on an unexpected journey. The remorse he feels for having battled with a man whose head was bashed in by metal and glass over the years gradually turns into an ulcerated sore. Twenty-five years later and nearing the same age at which his father had died, Harris begins to re-experience his death as if it has only just occurred. In fact, he is encountering an “anniversary reaction” not uncommon to family survivors of those who die early or violently, or for whom a relationship was once troubled or ambiguous.

     Depressed, Harris undertakes a kind of spiritual journey home, revisiting stories, people, and places from his father's life in an effort to reconcile his troubled memories of their relationship. It's a journey into rich emotional territory as Harris weaves a masterful portrait of both an era and a man. The story comes to a close as the author travels to locate the remote, long forgotten spot on a Wisconsin highway where his father died. The weekend trip becomes a finale to a son's long quest to find peace with the ghosts of the past.

     Beautifully told, Mark T. Harris writes with sensitivity for emotional landscapes. I Want to Change the World explores a rich tapestry of memories from an era when the Vietnam War and the youth counterculture divided countless American households. A uniquely gifted writer, Harris invites readers to share in his intimate narrative without losing a feel for the universal nature of this timeless story of love's redemptive power.