O Captain!

"It's all right there."
He waves his arm dramatically from across the street at the three buildings that sit in a row.
"The church, God; City Hall, the state; and then the school.  Which one looks the best and which the worst?"
It was a rhetorical question.  The answer was obvious.
"But they each have a duty to each other.  They're each responsible for each other and yet sometimes they fail that responsibility, each in its turn."
He was giving me, really, a lesson in speech-making.  I had asked about the presentation he had made the night before at the Man of the Year dinner sponsored by the local newspaper--it was an award given for community service.
"Did you get de Tocqueville in there?"
What a question I know.  You have to understand what it's like to be his son.  There's this line from the Godfather II where Fredo and Michael are having a heart-to-heart at a cafe in Cuba.  Fredo wishes he was a better man.
"...more like Pop," he says.
Michael gives him one of the few soft looks he has in the film.  "It's not easy being his son, Fredo."
Or words to that effect.
Being my Dad's son is easy.
"Democracy in America!  Of course.  That's the whole point.  These institutions exist side-by-side.  Each serving the community and hopefully inspiring the citizens to participate."
I knew the speech well.  I am the curator of my father's lectures--his public comments, the record of his public life.  I know how he crafts them.  He loves to talk about natural talent--especially in the sports world.  And even if you're talking about a ballet dancer, say, he'll bring it back to sports, "the way she danced the dying swan?  It's like Willie Mays..."  Anyway, he's a natural.  The delivery he could do in his sleep.  He's fearless at a podium.  He doesn't reach out and grab you as much as draw you in and pull you along.  I've watched it happen.  I'm a connoisseur of the myriad ways he makes people smile, laugh, nod their heads agreeing with his populism, his practical optimism, his boot-strap liberalism.
He has a "It's a Wonderful Life" speech--you don't know how good you got it until you lose it--and a "Wizard of Oz" speech--don't look to the horizon for the truth, it's right there in your own backyard, both he can pull out and, at a moment's notice, re-shape depending on the audience, the scenery, or the occasion.  Despite all my years of learning at his knee I still can't inspire an audience like he can.
I look at him and realize that I'll remember this moment forever.  I can't say why but I know it to be true.
"What?"
"Nothing."  I put my arm around his shoulder and he circles my waist with his for a moment.  I can feel how our bodies are the same.  His, is mine 30 years on.  I am his.