milton ... paradise lost & paradise regained ... a brief sabbatical ...

friends:

this summer last i read the bible start to end & word for word.

now, i am going to do something else i have neglected, and that is read milton's paradise lost & paradise regained, start to end & word for word.

it was said of jim taylor, the great fullback for the green bay packers and a graduate of louisiana state university, that he was as little affected by a college education as any person, imaginable.  joe meyer, a philosophy professor at whitman college, my alma mater, said that i had entered college an unlettered heathen and much to the surprise of everyone i left college a lettered heathen: he was always much amused when he related that to me, which was often.  i just replied that while i was in college it was not readily apparent that his tennis game had improved much, to me, or anyone else, for that matter.

i am told that they do not make college philosophy professors like that anymore.  odd that, because professor soper couldn't play tennis all that great, either.  and, yes, he had a marvelous sense of humor & wit as well, and fed us his homemade beer after evening seminar at his home.

g'nite, mrs. calabash, wherever you are.  and, yes, i think that professors soper and meyer would be pleased, and perhaps pleasantly surprised, and i would imagine that their uniform response would be, if they were here to tell me, well, it certainly cannot hurt you very much.

i am not going to attend to my blogging duties as i read milton, ... , and, in honor of the good professors, and professors fluno & breit who were always very optimistic as regards me, as well, we shall call this little hiatus a brief sabbatical.  i want simply to absorb what i can, and think and reflect upon that which i do absorb.  who knows, it certainly cannot hurt me very much.

john jay @ 11.11.2010

p.s.  and, i will take long fantastical walks at the foothills of my beloved blue mountains, and play bad guitar in the evenings.  it shall be fun, and restorative & rejuvenating.  g_d knows, i need "juvenation."  i think.

Comments

[JewishOdysseus]

This is not good-bye, my friend--this is au revoir! Happy reading!