Renee wrote:
>Well, Sukie, I think memory does serve correctly.  The Man of la Mancha
>was taken from Don Quixote, if my ever-older memory serves me!
 
Yes, I just pulled out my copies for details:
 
Don Quixote de la Macha
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
my translated text is on Random House from the 40s by Peter Motteux, its
forward containing, "What manner of man was this Miguel de Cervantes who
at the age of fifty-seven, in desperate financial straits and with an
almost continuous record of failure and misfortune behind him, could
bring to the world a book that has helped men laugh at their own troubles
ever since?"
 
Here is a summary of his personal history: Born 1547 into poverty with
his father a surgeon so he was much more learned than most, became a
soldier and lost the use of one hand, was hostage of pirates for 5 years
and almost sold into slavery at Constantinople, sent to debtors' prison
on finally managing to arrive home from captivity, wrote 30 plays which
failed, ghost wrote for others, sent to prison twice for what seem to
have been a accidental accounting errors in two jobs involving number
crunching (not the right sort of job for him), then back to prison when
he was himself making good on the mismatch of moneys and numbers because
a bank closed and bankrupted him again and then began work on one of the
greatest novels of all time.  There.  Do the troubles most of us face
seem more manageable by comparison?  The hope for us greater?
 
The song "Impossible Dream/ the Quest" was the work of composer Mitch
Leigh, and of Lyricist Joe Darion whose words appeared in a post by
another as a salute to those who keep shelters:
"... to dream the impossible dream ... to fight the unbeatable foe ...
to try when your arms are too weary ... to run where the brave dare not
go..."
 
It is a sentiment that anyone working to save homeless ferrets, to make
bits of truth available, to improve knowledge, to get reasonable
legislation for ferrets can understand.  Not everyone can do it (though
if everyone did a bit it would be easier), and "all" will never be done,
but those bits of progress made each year help everyone, and those are
the fruits of the quest.
[Posted in FML issue 4700]