(IJCH) Walter Cronkite, "On This Day" and A Historical Event
IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head (meaning: My warped, personal opinions and musings)
From the Author
Salutations. I am JaiChai. And if I haven't had the pleasure to make your acquaintance, it's always nice to meet a fellow Steemian.
Walter Cronkite and "On This Day"
For some odd reason, after logging into Steemit and replying to all comments on my posts, I thought of Walter Cronkite.
(For the benefit of our young Steemians, Walter Cronkite anchored the desk of the "CBS Evening News" from April 16, 1962 until March 6, 1982.)
I can remember hearing his famous sign-off: "And that's the way it is."
I particularly enjoyed watching a segment of his broadcast that was called "On this Day". During this segment, Mr. Cronkite would describe a significant historical event that happened on that same day.
Technically, it should have been called "On This Date" because a date can fall on different days of the week in different years.
Furthermore - technically speaking again - the "Day" could not refer to the sequential numerical designation of the day in the year (day number) either. That's because the day number depends on whether it's a leap year or not.
For example, instead of December 27 representing the 361st day of the year, it is the 362nd day in the future 2020 calendar - a leap year.
(Okay, leaving tangent and returning to main topic now.)
The facts surrounding the historical event - including their antecedents and subsequent effects - of the day featured in Walter Cronkite's "On This Day" always fascinated me.
Needless to say, I learned a lot.
"On This Day - Édition De JaiChai"
During and after Mr. Cronkite's life, many other versions of "On this day" were adopted by other shows, newspapers and magazines.
Nowadays, there are many "On This Day" websites.
Some are general, while others are highly specialized; catering to populations in a certain geographical area, religion, ethnic group, industry, category of hobbyist, etc.
Capitalizing on the "flow phase" - the manic half of "the ebb and flow of my mood and motivation cycles", I shot over to the "On This Day" Wikipedia page (my very first time visiting this page) and started to scan the items on the long list of historical events.
I chose the first thing that stood out as being significant - at least to me - to serve as my "On This Day" featured historical event.
So, without further ado, for all the Steemians out there, here's my version of "On This Day" (JaiChai Edition) for Wednesday, December 27, the 361st day of 2017.
Darwin, God and The Annunaki
On this day, December 27, 1831, Charles Darwin boarded the HMS Beagle and went on a sea voyage that took him to the Galapagos islands.
Shortly thereafter, he began to hash out his theory of evolution.
Of course, immediately after Darwin published his theory, the religious sector - who staunchly believed in Creationism by God, voiced their "righteous" protests and mounted their Anti-Evolution Campaign.
The war against "such blasphemy" is still going on today.
Adding to the mix (and taking the debate one step further) is the growing belief that Humans were genetically engineered by an ancient Alien race called the Annunaki.
Whatever your beliefs are, you have to give credit to Charles Darwin for courageously submitting his theory knowing full well what kind of response he would get.
And let's face it.
The bickering, posturing and volleying of accusations done by outspoken members from the Creationist's and the Evolutionist's camps have been putting on quite an entertaining, perpetual show no?
My father was an ordained minister and I was raised as a Methodist.
Every Sunday, the congregation could see by my actions that I vehemently agreed with the key points of my father's sermons.
But appearances are deceiving and effectively camouflage what's really going on.
The truth is that whenever I sat still and listened to my father's sermon for the umpteenth time (courtesy of all his rehearsals at home in the prior week), I would routinely battle a strong urge to fall asleep; failing miserably every time.
Inevitably, my head would grow heavy and I would soon start nodding off.
But thanks to my sister and mother, I didn't sleep long enough to begin snoring and drooling all over my Sunday clothes.
The Method is The Message
My only bone of contention with my sister and mother's most gracious and caring assistance was the methods they chose to discretely wake me up (in the midst of the whole, seated congregation).
Additionally, their mode of communicating their deep concern for my personal well-being was painfully obvious.
If you can imagine the following scenario - played out every Sunday of my childhood, you'll understand why I rarely attend church services now:
Upon seeing my drowsy state, my mother or sister would give me a vicious kick to my shin, or a sadistic pinch to the top of my hand, or a sharp jab to my ribs.
Medical people would describe the aftermath of those actions as "Exquisite Tenderness".
The pain stimulus would instantly jar me awake, snapping my head to attention; hence, the appearance of me dramatically concurring with the scriptures and "showing how the spirit moved me".
Over the years, I guess through osmosis, I learned more about the Bible than most people of the Christian faith.
The result of all that religious education?
I've been a Buddhist for decades now.
My take on the "Origin of Man"
If the above image doesn't clue you in on my "Origin" beliefs, here's a little something more...
Let's just say that I like watching "Prometheus", reading Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, and learning about the technology of the ancient Sumerians a Hell of a lot more than the stories I was told in my youth about "Adam and Eve" and the "Garden of Eden".
What happened on this day in history that is significant to you?
By JaiChai
Thanks for stopping by.
About the Author
He is a retired U.S. Military veteran. Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he freefall parachuted out of airplanes and performed diving ops in very deep, open ocean water.
He spends his days on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.
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