A Personal History: James L Hinton

 

Jim is Ken’s oldest brother. He is a wonderful and prolific writer.  He spends time each day writing and has written and published many books.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading his autobiography. I love Jim’s style.  He tells what happened in detail as he remembers it.  He has always been a journal keeper, so much of the information comes from the journal.  But he has such a wonderful way of not only telling what happened, but expressing his feelings about it.

Jim is an extraordinary person, worthy of emulation.  Jim is a listener.  He knows how to get people talking about themselves.  He is a master at that.  He often sits quiet in group settings, but when he speaks, everyone sits up and listens.  He thinks before he speaks.  He is self-disciplined, forward thinking, and thoughtful.  I very much wanted to read his autobiography and learn more about his life and philosophies.

It is a very long book – 338 pages- and it took me a long time to read.  I like to read a fiction book and a non-fiction book at the same time.  I read several fiction books while I was reading this one.  I will mention some of the highlights for me:

·        The part telling of his early life as it gave me so much insight to my husband’s early life. Though Ken is eleven years younger than Jim, his childhood was very similar. A childhood in Hurricane, Utah was a child’s dream.

·        His military experiences at boot camp and officer training school were painful to read and so poignant.  Only someone of Jim’s caliber could survive the abuse and come out on top, as he did.  He was honored as a leader.

·        Some of his mission experiences were also difficult to read as bullying was used to get missionaries to toe the mark.  Though I didn’t see bullying as we served our senior mission, I did observe that missionaries that were good at fooling their superiors and willing to take undeserved credit, were rewarded with kudos and leadership experiences, while more humble, harder-working missionaries were overlooked.  Jim also excelled as a missionary in his own, humble way.  His service had great impact on many, and continues to bless the lives of those he served. I appreciated his honest look at a culture that needed to change.

·        His work and church work were interesting to read about, but I especially enjoyed reading about his family life and interests and hobbies.  Jim and Leslie have raised a stellar family of seven children.  Each are remarkable individuals who excelled in scholastics, sports, and church and are kind, good, socially adept people.

·        The best part of the book was the beautiful tribute he paid to his wife, Leslie at the end of the book.  Though, curiously, the word “love” is never used, it is obvious that he loves and honors her.  I have always admired and looked up to both Jim and Leslie, and his detailed tribute was inspiring and deserved.  Throughout the book, he mentions times of conflict between them.  I think his intentions were to present a “real” picture of marriage.  Those incidents are disturbing to me.  But, in the end, his great love and admiration for her comes through.  Mention also should be made of Leslie’s work as editor of the book.

Reading someone’s personal history takes you on a journey through their life, getting to know them in a very intimate way.  What a blessing this history will be to his posterity for years to come.  I know it has blessed Ken and me.