I have a good friend who, the first time he came to Waco, wanted to see two things in particular:  the Dr. Pepper Museum (the soft drink was invented here and is earnestly celebrated still), and the Armstrong-Browning Library on the campus of Baylor University, which houses the largest existing collection of memorabilia pertaining to poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  The Armstrong of the title refers to Dr. A.J. Armstrong—a fan of the Browning’s poetry who gave it all to Baylor.

A few days later my friend wrote that these two “secular shrines” represented something worthy of celebrating and that they were “the embodiment of obsessions that were both innocent and fruitful.”

Later today I’m heading up to Greenville, Texas to give the keynote talk in the morning at a two-day celebration called “Audie Murphy Days” put on by the Audie Murphy-American Cotton Museum in that fair city.  Murphy, who was born a little way outside Greenville in 1925, became a hero for his valor in WWII and when he returned stateside found himself giving speeches, riding in parades, and having his face on the cover of Life magazine.  Within a year he had been summoned to Hollywood by one of the biggest names in the movies and in a few years found himself a movie star.

The Museum and its devotees earnestly seek to keep Murphy’s memory alive and vibrant in a culture that is increasingly dismissive both of history and of heroes.  For them, that enterprise is an obsession both innocent and fruitful, and to be applauded in any age.