Humankind has spent eons searching for paradise. Famed English poet John Milton, who would’ve turned 402 tomorrow, wrote of Paradise Lost in 1667, he said, to justify the ways of God to man. Maybe he should’ve written in English we could understand. Just kidding (no I’m not). We are questioning creatures so often searching for answers and meaning.
Two anti-establishment Johns: Milton & Lennon
This week has historically been a week when Americans have sought to understand tragic events, none more so than the attacks on Pearl Harbor on this date in 1941. That’s the day 2,400 Americans were killed in a surprise attack on the Hawaiian naval base by Japan. The next day President Franklin Roosevelt made his famous speech to Congress in which he declared that the 7th of December was “…a date which will live in infamy.” America immediately declared war on Japan.
More questioning took place on this date in 1980 when John Lennon was murdered. Fans of the famous musician were devastated at the senseless shooting. December 8th is also the birthday of another tragic musician, Jim Morrison, frontman for The Doors who never found paradise himself but rather overdosed in a bathtub in France years before Lennon was killed in New York.
New York was also the hometown of Sammy Davis, Jr. who was also born on December 8th. So was Sam Kinison, another performer to die young. A lot of people remember Kinison as the screaming professor in Back To School with Rodney Dangerfield who also appeared in Caddyshack as a nemesis to Judge Elihu Smails played by Mary Tyler Moore alum Ted Knight. Knight, whose birthday would’ve been yesterday, actually dropped out of high school to enlist for military service in World War II following the Pearl Harbor attack.
In between fighting Nazis and battling gophers, Knight made various television appearances in the 1980s as did Mr. Dick Butkus who celebrates his 68th birthday tomorrow. After a Hall of Fame career in the NFL, Butkus moved into acting. Sure he appeared on shows like Growing Pains, MacGyver, and Magnum P.I. but real die hards of the 1980s remember his role as Ed Klawicki in that epic show My Two Dads. Yes, I had a crush on the show’s young star Staci Keanan when I was a kid, and yes I was relieved that Step By Step kept her on TV through the 90s, but I feel we’ve drifted away from the legendary prose of Milton here.
Well, it made sense at the time.
Milton went blind during his life and so shared a special interest in the ancient hero Samson, the Old Testament strongman who was betrayed by his woman Delilah and captured by the Philistines who gouged out his eyes and held him prisoner. In Samson Agonistes, Milton recounts the betrayal.
“I yielded, and unlocked her all my heart, Who with a grain of manhood well resolved Might easily have shook off all her snares: But foul effeminancy held me yoked Her bond-slave.”
Now, I don’t know if that kind of talk would’ve worked on Staci Keanan when I was 13 but Dick Butkus could really appreciate a tough guy like Samson. By the way, Butkus was from Illinois, the same state from which Barack Obama was a senator until winning the White House in 2008. On December 9th of that same year, Governor Rob Blagojevich was arrested for attempting to sell the president’s vacated senate seat. Classy move. Reminds me of the “obdurate pride” that Milton once wrote about.
Photo of Jack Schmitt by Gene Cernan w/ Earth in background
Well, onto happier times for Illinois as we come to Mr. Gene Cernan, native of “The Prairie State.” He captained the final Apollo mission, number 17, which departed earth on December 7, 1972. A few days later he became the last human to step foot on the surface of the moon. As the crew departed our planet, they snapped the famous “Blue Marble” picture.
Maybe man will one day achieve those lofty heights again and regain what those who went there have called paradise. The images are amazing and make sense of Milton’s words: “The broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon…” You just don’t find writing like that in 1980s television, but I bet John Lennon would have approved.
~*~*~*~
On Wikipedia Wednesday I take the Wiki’s word for it about what happened on this date in history (give or take a day) and vamp up the rest to connect the events. It’s okay. I’m a trained historian. You won’t get history like this anywhere else.
__________________________________________________________________________
Did you learn somethin’? Follow me on Twitter @eduClaytion.
Well, it just seems appropriate to quote John Lennon who said: “All we are saying is give peace a chance” because sadly, as of today there are 5,820 soldiers casualties reported in the wars in Iraq and Afganistan.
Is Paradise Lost? Maybe Milton had it right. After all, it’s just a fancy re-telling of the Biblical Fall of Adam and Eve. Maybe we were fated to this end, eh: the hideous narcissism that leads first to the mindless destruction of people and – eventually – the destruction of the planet. G-d gave us free will, and this is how we choose to use it. Every day. Sad.
We don’t seem to have evolved enough to get along with our next door neighbors let alone people who represent different cultures, religions, and worldviews.
I wondered how your mind would react to my musings on Milton. Brought out the philosophizer in ya. You probably know more about English poetry in one strand of your hair than I could summon from the entire recesses of my gray matter, but he deserved a nod for his bday.
To respond I say yes, we do mindlessly destroy ourselves. That kind of self-destruct seems to be woven into our DNA and wrestles with that stubborn self-preservation instinct. Yet we are more than mere chemicals and formulas, and I don’t believe that Paradise is ever lost but by choice. I’m going to put on a velvet robe now and smoke a pipe by a fireplace. Maybe I should start wearing a monocle if I’m going to talk like this
While you were crushin’ on Staci Keanan, I was lusting after her dad, Greg Evigan!
Nice connecting of historical events, Clay!
Wendy
Ha, that’s funny. Yeah, he was the cool dad to the neurotic Paul Reiser. So you got your dose of the dads in Canade too eh?
I’m glad that I’m in the hands of a trained historian. I knew Staci Keanan looked familiar! Step By Step! TGIF! I miss Family Matters, too. Friday nights were a huge deal for me growing up (not to mention Saturday nights on Nickelodeon). Whatever happened to Jaleel White? I challenge you to do a blog post on THAT, my friend!
December 8th is my father’s birthday. It is also the day my maternal grandmother died. How ironic is that???
Strange indeed. Thanks for stopping by and reading.