Today, I read Tomasino's update on 
his move to Iceland and was shocked to 
see a much too kind reference to 
myself[1]. 

In any case, the phlog entry got me 
looking back into the details of 
Tomasino's move and since then I've 
been spelunking through the depths of 
his phlog. It's fascinating stuff. If 
you haven't dug into the Tomasino 
archives, I highly recommend it.

Gopher is definitely a form of 
asynchronous communication and I don't 
think it gets any more asynchronous 
than this. I stumbled across a phlog 
post from January 2018 in which 
Tomasino discussed the impact of a TV 
show, Northern Exposure, on him. He 
described it as a 'profound and 
personal' 'mystical connection.'[2]

I have a TV show that impacted me 
similarly: M*A*S*H. I can't remember 
not knowing the characters. I remember 
sitting in the grass outside the house 
when I was about four years old and 
hearing the theme song, and then going 
in to watch it. It's hard to believe 
that my parents let me watch the show 
at that age, but they did. I watched 
it as I grew up and after it ended in 
1983, I often watched the reruns. 
Then, when we went to Maui in May, it 
was on in the evenings and I started 
to watch it again. Since then, I've 
been re-watching it online, from the 
beginning.

When I think about where I got my 
values, that show had a major impact. 
Hawkeye Pierce (perhaps minus the 
philandering!) shaped my views as much 
as Tommy Douglas, Jesus Christ, or my 
Grandmother. I will never be a 
militarist. I will always be cynical. 
I am a humanitarian. And I will always 
feel trapped in a situation not quite 
of my own choosing....

That outlook, I think, stems from 
those M*A*S*H scripts and hours of 
exposure to the ideas of whoever was 
writing them. When I went to 
university, I learned many things, but 
I think that the cynical, critical, 
analytical, and humanitarian outlook 
fostered by the social commentary at 
the heart of M*A*S*H was as 
responsible for my successes as 
anything I read for my classes.

Somewhere, in some phlog entry, 
Tomasino mentioned Joseph Campbell and 
his statement that "all myths are 
true." I think I would add that when 
it comes to our personal experiences, 
all myths are equal. We each carry a 
personal mythology, and a sense of 
ethics absorbed unintentionally from 
works of fiction, that we cannot 
really escape. From our own vantage 
point, the power of those stories is 
every bit as strong as the 'official' 
mainstream mythologies (be they 
religious, nationalistic, or 
otherwise) foisted upon us by our 
societies. Perhaps they're stronger.

I'm kind of tickled to think that 
Tomasino's universe of saints includes 
Ed, Marilyn, Shelly and Holling. That 
show really was epic in a weird kind 
of way. For me, it's Saint Sherman, 
Saint Radar, and Saint Margaret. Amen.

By the way, if you're too young and 
you haven't watched M*A*S*H or 
Northern Exposure, holy hell you're 
lucky. Start watching! 


[l] gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20190705-some-replies-from-iceland

[2] gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20180104-northern-exposure