The Parable of the Rocket Scientist and Camelot

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, forty-five years after his assassination, what has lived on from JFK’s America?”

Josh spoke thus:

A rocket scientist was watching the sun set on Camelot.

“That’s a job well done,” the rocket scientist said to no one.

The rocket scientist had just completed a scale model of Camelot in Lego.  

There was a castle keep, of course, a ten-foot tall castle keep.  

The rocket scientist was aware of the latest trend of faux historicity regarding Camelot. The rocket scientist had seen the new movies about Arthur as a Roman.  The rocket scientist had seen the new documentaries about Arthur as a Celt.  As a Briton.  As a Welshman.

The rocket scientist had read how Camelot must have been a wooden fort.  The rocket scientist had read how Camelot must have been an earthworks.  The rocket scientist had read how Camelot was two, maybe three different places, in western Britain, in Cornwall, in Glastonbury, in Wales.

There were no knights at Camelot, the new vogue insisted.  There were no jousts.  There was no shining armor.  There was no Excalibur.  There were no damsels, dragons, grails.  There was no chivalry.

Which to the rocket scientists missed the point of Camelot.  Take away the chivalry, take away the shine, take away the great keeps and moats and banners and tournaments and you had no Camelot.  Take away the romance, and the lady in the lake and the necromancy and all you had was a muddy warrior king in the middle of a muddy fort in the middle of a muddy island.  That was not Camelot.

The rocket scientist had lived Camelot.  The rocket scientist had lived Mercury, had lived Gemini, had lived Apollo.  The rocket scientist had seen the first orbit, the first space walk, the first trip to the moon, the first moon landing.

“Don’t tell me there’s no Merlin,” the rocket scientist said to no one, “Don’t tell me there are no spells.  Don’t tell me there are no charms.  Don’t tell me there’s no Holy Grail.  I’ve seen the Holy Grail.  I’ve seen a man on the moon.”

So the rocket scientist was pleased with his ten-foot keep.  The rocket scientist was delighted with his knights errant, his king, his queen, his consorts, heroes, villains and wizards.

“We sent a man to the moon,” the rocket scientist said to no one, “Now they can’t build a pipeline from Canada to Texas that doesn’t leak.  There are less leaks in the pipeline of illegal drugs over the fence with Mexico than there are in their pipelines.  And they want to say there was no Camelot?  There was a Camelot.”

The rocket scientist looked at the moon over Camelot.

“We sent a man to the moon,” the rocket scientist said.