Dartblog

Art historians spend time debating whether Norman Rockwell was an artist or simply an illustrator. But on this Thanksgiving Day, we can applaud him for having a keen eye for American life and an intuitive sense of shared human emotions. His painting Home for Thanksgiving 1945, reproduced on the cover of the November 24, 1945 Saturday Evening Post, would have brought a lump to the throat of every American who had a loved one in harm’s way during WWII — and with over ten million men under arms at the end of the war, that meant just about everyone.

Look at the mother’s gaze as she lovingly watches her soldier-son helping out in the kitchen. He’s finally back home, and safe. As any parent understands, in her mind’s eye she is seeing her little boy as he once was. And her child knows it, too: he looks down happily at his chore, holding his heels up on the second rung of the chair, as undoubtedly he had done many years before.

Perhaps on this holiday, we can all take a moment to think of the families whose grown children are serving as soldiers and are still in danger today.