Truman and MacArthur

Good morning! As I worked my way home late last night, I received a call from a tired college student. "Could you please edit my paper? It's due tomorrow first thing in the morning..." Sigh...sure, it's only 11:00 pm and my mind has a few cells functioning, let me get to it.

So at midnight,I had the pleasure of reading and editing a five page paper on the Truman-MacArthur relationship and how the President eventually fired the war hero for insubordination. It was a fascinating read, yet I am not sure how much I helped with the editing until I saw that American was spelled in the paper with a lower case "a" rather than a capital "A". No? Right....I immediately woke my brain up to at least capture and delete spelling errors, double negatives and faulty grammar. The paper was back in his box by 1 am all pretty and coherent (I think).

After brewing the coffee this morning, I received another call thinking that he was calling me to thank me profusely for reading, editing, and improving the document and all he wanted was to speak with his father. "Where's dad?" he asked. Not wanting to be or even capable at that moment of witty, biting sarcasm, I gave him the perfunctory answer: "Dunno...office?" "Just called it and no answer..."

As the brain began to work its way to lucidity, he gave me the breakdown of his day....I have physical therapy, class, lunch, then playing video games with Boston....sounds like a fun time. "Hey, did you get the paper?" He replied: "Yeah, thanks".

Yeah, thanks? Yeah, thanks? That's it??? No, "oh mom, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking a paper that I wrote in the bathroom while shaving my two whiskers and turning it into a document of pure reading pleasure! By the way, where's dad?" Nope...nothing...nada...

No problem, BP mom loves helping her little guy whenever he needs a bit of assistance especially in the editing department. I may not be able to throw a curve ball, but I can certainly read and edit. As the conversation continued, Buddy captured my attention with the sentence: "It is done..." What is done? Truman fired MacArthur? Your eggs are done? PT is done? You made your bed this morning? What is done?

He continued: "LW knows that we are not living together next year." Wow, this is huge news.... AND he was going to share this news with his dad first...you know, the guy who was asleep last night at 1 am. Apparently, Angel and Big Red had the "talk" last night and LW took the news in stride. In fact, he did not react but mentioned that he was going to live alone and not have any room mates. No drama....no shouting...no reactions....no rapping...just...."I had other plans anyway..."

And so, the break up did not make the newspapers and history books like the Truman MacArthur fall out. There was calm on the battlefield as the war was over. A peace treaty was signed and the guys saw serenity at the end of the school year. I promptly went into full BP mom mode:"Perhaps, one day, you can actually be friends...."
"No, mom, that will never happen...sheesh..." Is that the line that Truman used when he relieved MacArthur of his duties? Maybe....