and the ideas that roil in the mind when that mind weaves the
possibilities of what is now with what could be. He pounced on new facts
with delight.
The first time I met Jimmy it was over Beanie sandwiches in the kitchen
of the family home in West Los Angeles. He was a student; I was a kid.
He was the kind of person who listened to children and responded
thoughtfully, by which I mean he was able to connect and engage in a
real discourse, not talking down to me but exploring the ideas that
found their way into our conversation, introducing ideas as part of the
text. With Jimmy if there was conversation there were ideas to discuss.
It was on that very first visit that Jimmy and I discussed mortality. It
was the first time anyone had mentioned the subject to me. I had been
watching a tortoise dissolve back into dust, so to speak. I had
discovered the tortoise already very dead behind a bush in the back yard
of the house. I was fascinated by the process of its dissolution as ants
carried it away and it shrank into itself. I had not told anyone else
because I knew how they would reaction. The tortoise would evoke shrieks
and Mom would remove it.
Given a chance I hauled Jimmy back to look, too. Jimmy was delighted. He
proceeded to tell me about observing the same process with a cow on a
farm back home. Then, squatting down for a closer look, he told me that
the essence of the tortoise, the thing that had make it move and live,
was gone. The same happened to all that lived, he told me.
From that time on we talked about ideas whenever he showed up for a
visit. Towards the end of the visits he had started talking to me about
books he was reading and the ideas that excited him in those.
Jimmy was looking forward to a career; that career would only begin with
acting. He mentioned moving on to directing and other work. He had been
unhappy with the way a book he had read was made into a movie. The book
was Fountainhead. He wanted to remake it because he thought the
characterizations were flat and had failed to evoke the wonderful
potential of the human life. I suspect now, looking back through a life
time that has afforded me the opportunity to know more than I want about
Objectivism, that if he had tried to do the remake he wanted Ayn Rand
would have strenuously objected. Jimmy had a strong sense of
spirituality that would have offended her. Jimmy would probably have
ignored her objections. He was like that. He knew what he wanted and he
was determined.
I have many memories of Jimmy; he always found time to talk to me and
since we shared a fascination with ideas there was always lots to
discuss. The essence of spirit, the past and how we know and understand
it; the flow of time. All of these things were subjects we discussed. He
did most of the talking, naturally. I listened carefully and asked
questions.
Does a shallow, self indulgent kid greedy for fame and the potential for
self importance and what fame can buy spend that kind of time with a
child? No. Would that kind of discourse slip from the lips of an angst
ridden pop tart? Hardly.
If Jimmy had lived he would not have become a fat, self-indulgent has
been. He would have taken the capital he had created in name
identification and respect and invested it in projects that pushed the
edges of thought in new directions. Hollywood would have followed his
lead because he was worth following. He would have started projects for
kids in Fairmount, Indiana; he would have, perhaps run for office. He
would have done good in all directions. He cared about people and he
cared about the kind of world his generation would leave behind.
I know that to most people he exemplified the undirected angst of youth.
Ironically the image he left immediately in the minds of most Americans
was the product of hard work at the craft of acting. To see that perhaps
Legnon should stand back and consider the intellectual vigor it takes to
achieve that outcome. Jimmy was directed, focused, intent, inquiring and
passionately interested in everything around him. That remains the
unspoken and compelling presence that continues to fascinate, even if
the viewer does not understand why.
I wish you could have known him. Then you would understand why he is
worth remembering.
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster is the founder and president of the Arthur C.
Pillsbury Foundation and the author of several books including, "A Tour
of Old Yosemite," and "GREED: The NeoConning of America." She is a long
time Republican, and a member of the National Federation of Republican
Women. She also blogs. Her blogs can be viewed at:
http://howtheneoconsstolefreedom.blogspot.com
http://melindapillsbury-foster.blogspot.com and
http://pillsbury-fosterpoetry.blogspot.com
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