In his great novel "Once An Eagle", Anton Myrer traced the careers of two soldiers from WWI through the Vietnam War. One soldier was a front-line platoon leader who came up through the ranks from the mudholes of France to high command positions as a three-star general. The other was a "corporate climber" type of officer who served on the staffs of mighty generals and spent minimal time in actual command of troops. The staff type, of course, rose to great heights while the troop leader suffered many setbacks and frustrations in his career. It is a well written, engaging, and insightful story that never once left me shaking my head at any incongruity.
In the trenches of France, the young troop leader, Sam Damon, has a sergeant working for him, a countrified, down-home southerner who often reinforces his opinion of things by proclaiming it to be the "Red Hot Gospel". It has been some time since I read the book, but I think the sergeant gets killed somewhere along the line, in any case, he was a mentor for the young Lieutenant Damon who learned his trade from the crusty sergeant.
Later in the story, in a dicey situation in the Pacific jungles of WWII, Damon, now a commander of an infantry unit, is engaged with the enemy and in a rough position. One of his subordinates reviews the situation for Damon and finishes up by saying they had a very serious dilemma...Damon, mulling this over in his mind replies, "That's the Red Hot Gospel". It is such a clever literary device... the reader knows immediately, without Myrer spending a single word on it, that Damon is remembering the experiences of WWI, the scrapes he and his sergeant survived, perhaps missing the sergeant's sage advice, and searching for the kind of bold solution that the sergeant always had a knack for supplying. And it is a kind of salute to the sergeant, in a way, sort of keeping him alive in a way. I remember being touched by it when I read it probably thirty years ago.
Told you all that so I could tell you this: Red Hot Gospel became a phrase that was used a lot in our family. Every family has these sort of catch phrases that stick through the years...I have even written about a couple of them before. One of the phrases I used frequently when my kids did something well...or sometimes when they did something they should have done well but didn't, I would tell them, "Why...you're a Dadgum genius !" Sometimes meant in tribute, sometimes sarcastic, but always with enthusiasm and love. The kids are grown and gone and the opportunity to use the phrase has diminished some...in fact, I hadn't thought of it too often lately. But a couple weeks ago MamieLady was here with a some of her tribe and one of them did something and showed it to her mommy. ML smiled at her and told her, "Why...you're a Dadgum genius!" I smiled. I didn't remark on it, didn't want to make too big a deal of it, but it moved me. Seeing my littlies grown and interacting with their littlies is an especially sweet experience. Thinking that some of the silly things I said will continue...and that a trace of my influence remains, is humbling and elating at the same time. It is one of the best parts of being "Dad" (or Grampa)...and that's the Red Hot Gospel.