Quantum Leap was a television series that that aired from March 1989 to May 1993. Quantum Leap starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who leaps through spacetime during an experiment in time travel, by temporarily taking the place of other people to correct historical mistakes. In one of the episodes Sam leaps into the body of Ray Hutton, a working actor in the touring company of Man of La Mancha. He’s the understudy to a renowned actor, John O’Malley, who’s a bit of lush. His task is to keep the man from suffering a tragic fall during an upcoming performance. Taking over the lead roll Sam sings “The Impossible Dream.”
The Impossible Dream
Songwriters: Joe Darion / Mitchell Leigh
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march
Into hell for a heavenly cause
And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lay peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To fight the unbeatable foe
To reach the unreachable star
It is the first time that I heard the song and was immediately impressed with the lyrics and the meaning and import of them. It led to my reading Don Quixote. Recently Garrison Keillor in the Thursday, January 16, 2020, edition of “The Writer’s Almanac,” noted it was the birthday of Cervantes and wrote the following:
“Book One of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (books by this author) was published on this date in 1605. It’s considered to be the first modern novel. It’s about a middle-aged landowner from a village in La Mancha who stays awake at night reading books about chivalry, forgets to eat and sleep, insanely believes the tales to be true, and sets off on a skinny nag in a heroic quest to resurrect old-fashioned chivalry and heroism in the modern world.
“From an English translation of Don Quixote: ‘All I know is that while I’m asleep, I’m never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories — and bless the man who invented sleep, a cloak over all human thought, food that drives away hunger, water that banishes thirst, fire that heats up cold, chill that moderates passion, and, finally, universal currency with which all things can be bought, weight and balance that brings the shepherd and the king, the fool and the wise, to the same level.’”
We all wind up on the same level. It is something not only to ponder, but also to see in the ultimate end a sense of satisfaction. No one is immune.