Blog 418 – 09.28.2016

In my childhood and that of my parents cowboys and cowgirls were the heroes and heroines of the movies and of many of our fantasies. Due to the popularity of shows like HBO’S Game of Thrones, young adults today think more of Kings and Queens. Therefore I will borrow that symbolism to write of Knights and Ladies Fair.

It is not a new story for previous generations, too, had Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, and the Legend of King Arthur. I was ten years old when John F. Kennedy took the oath of office as the second youngest U.S. President ever (Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest .) President Kennedy only served 1,000 days and was assassinated on November 22,  1963, my thirteenth birthday. It was a day I will never forget nor anyone who was old enough to know what was happening. As terrible as Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 or the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, November 22, 1963 was a different kind of tragedy. Someone shot and killed the President of the United States of America. It was as if he had shot us all and we were bleeding. It was the end of Camelot as the Kennedy administration had come to be known. The Broadway play Camelot was popular then and lots of comparisons were made to King Arthur trying to bring a new vision to England and JFK trying to do the same for the U.S.A.

The final song in the play and movie Camelot is a favorite of mine and goes:

  “Each evening from December to December
Before you drift to sleep upon your cot
Think back on all the tales that you remember
Of Camelot.

   Ask every person if he’s heard the story
And tell it strong and clear if he has not
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
Called Camelot.

   Camelot, Camelot now say it out with love and joy.
Camelot, Camelot, yes Camelot my boy.

Where once it never rained till after sundown.
By eight a.m. the morning fog had flown.
Don’t let it be forgot that once the was a spot
For one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.”

As I type those words listening to and pausing the recording from the movie soundtrack I am reminded of a similar quote from which the title to the book and movie Gone With The Wind comes.

   “There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South…
Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow…
Here was the last to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair,
Of Master and of Slave…
Look for it only on in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered.

     A Civilization gone with the wind.”

And maybe it is a dream we should let go of as it was a dream that was a nightmare for all but a choose few. If you were not the king or queen, noble by birth, or a knight you were a slave to your Lord or Lady. We here in the U.S. fought a bloody war to make “citizen” the highest title in the land. And then about fifty years later we fought another war among ourselves to extend that title to a people who had been called slaves up to that point. Quite a few more years passed before we gave the right to vote to women. We did that last one without a war. We’ve made a few other strides which some would like to reverse. The Knights of Columbus would like to reverse Roe V Wade and take away a women’s choice. The Knights of the Clan, KKK, would like to reverse the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts entirely.

Some people would like to go back to what they perceive as a better time. A time of Knights and Ladies Fair, a time of Camelot.Those times may have been good for a chosen few but I’d like to see us go forward and do an even better job of living up to our ideals of liberty and justice for all. Some people talk about making America great again. I think the United States of America is greater than it has ever been before but it could be greater still. And it will not be Knights that make that happen perhaps it is time we give the fair ladies the equal pay they are due and maybe even the Top Job. Heaven knows a lady could not do worse that some of the knights we have chosen over the years. And chances are quite good that she could even bring us closer to that more perfect union. But then that is my opinion. The voters will decide.

Your friend and fellow traveler, “a knight without armor, Paladin”I loved that show.

David White