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Page 1: Sam's Eulogies

Samuel Lincoln Gordon

December 12, 1979

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Ladies and gentlemen,Friends;I have come to celebrate our friend, Samuel

Lincoln Gordon:Samuel for the ProPhet,Lincoln for justice,Gordon from the man who brought his name

tothis country and gave us allthe familywe so

love and cherish, and to whom all our hearts,

as with one mind, go out to soothe and

comfort. Celebrating Sam is in one way easy

and in another difficult. lt is difficult because

he was, himself, matchless at celebrating'Though we now sit hushed in grief, there is

not one of us who cannot remember ano

who will not long cherish the remembranceof one of Sam's loving celebrations' For each

of us, there is some special experience shared

with him which long after, perhaps, we our-

selves had forgotten it, took on a wonderf ul

new life on the lips of this great celebrator' ltis not only that we always felt that in Sam's

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company we were making history. we did, of

cour;e, find that in our moments with him,

€xtraordinary things happened. But more

imoortant is the fact that we really were

making history. We were furnishing Sam withother tlhemes for his celebrated celebrations'I keenly feel how lack-lustre must be this

celebraiion of mine when I consider the

wealth of wit and warmth he invariablybrought to his. In only this way is it easy .toceleb-rate him. For I have something that.he

seldom had: A great story to celebrate' He

iould light up even the smallest event and

hand it io us as a torch, emblematic of our

friendship. Though I could never match him

in this, my shorl-comings in handling are

more than overcome by the brightness of his

f lame.Mv theme is Samuel Gordon's Youth; I

cannot say his lif e. His unique ability to make

history th;ough his celebrations was but the

seed of that lreater history that would have

been his life. I can see Samuel, full o{ years

;;; *hlt; of h"it lik" his namesake the

o*rJoh"t,looting back over his long life' And I

i"""il"'rti. gathering up those years that

Jestinv has confined us to, as but the season

t*o,itr"t una search. At times, I believe l.can

t"""'J.t" Jtt e succeeding chapters. of his

historv. For certain, it is a wise man's hlstory

-i"i itrtJ.. was his only goal' Let not his

humor or his manner deceive you on tnls

JJi"t]irt.t"'*t'. do not see his lif e as a search

i"r tft" *itaot of Solomon either do not well

r!t"tn".fti., or have not recently read his

irruiiriout kinsmen' To be sure, he was no

cloistered Academician; his laboratory was

irlu-*otfa, and to leave any pa.rt ol.jt un:

.t"f "*O

was to abuse philosophy' Life not

ii"!a io irt" trrr"st was, for him, something far

less than life.Yet, lest I stare into the face of even one

*to-*iii not take this torch from me' this

iigtti, "t

.r""t as day before my eyes' of what

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he was to be, let me celebrate then not his

uoritt, f rt *tt"t death has made his life' For

in"itt" it dead, our choked voices and tear-

stained faces bear more eloquent.witne.ssthan our insensible words' So be it then: Hls

iit". ft "t,,oo,

*us a stirringtheme' Those that

;;;;k;i;;" know not what he achieved'

ihose that question his wisdom never put a

"r"rA."-a. hi.. Thot" that do not recall his

iulii* n"u"t tought his judgment' Thosethat

bitu hirn remember not his hard-forged ctrcte

5ii;;;iiii"nat. rhose that talk of traged'v

i","i'i 6u, little of the jov he brought us all'-l;"; as I search out the courageous faces

"t ti" pur"ntt he loved, I remember that his

;i#;;i';tilate had told me that sam had

f,e;-;; ;;; irrePlaceable friend' we all

;;;;;" insight into what he means and

J"t rt" i""rt, tirough none of us can touch

;'; c;;.Ji'ief. B-ut if sam is irreplaceable'

iie it eqrattv l,nforgettable' The lineaments

of his spirit are indelibly etched in my m!19'

i"i'*t'"rgft f,it inimitable imitations and his

l"[riui"8 ."r"brations, each one of us takes

ir.r rtli"" "

trr";a for life' For the love of cod'I pray you, also celebrate his love'

--William Altman

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Sam's passing has shocked us all. At the very

least, ii is a gr-im reminder of our own mortal-

itv, of the fiailty of the flesh and blood that

carries us through the world. In a much larger

sense, it is the overwhelming. and ineplace-

able loss of a son, a brother, a dear f riend' Sam

was mv best friend. In his death I find much

coursg for grief and despair. Why, I keep

askinq, should so important a person De

i"niet tne remainder of the life he had

besun in such a spectacular fashion? WhyshJuld Sam have been cut short of com-

pleting his life's work? lf the great artists live

bn ln ltre works they pass on to succeeding

eenerations, then Sam's work must surely be

iiving with all of us. But what was Sam's work?

It wis not weighty paper volumns left toeather dust and iobwebs on a library shelf' ltivas something bigger and more exciting' ltwas words, buiit was more than words' lt was

a language. But it was even more than that' To

.e.',It wis an entirely new and different way

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of lookins at the world-'?Ite Worlil Acmrding

fo So "iVou might say. Sam's world was one

that *"s-tittea with all manner of interesting

itrinesr stuna birds, plootnee beans, schmoe

ii""!. .o nut" only i few. lt was a world filled

*ittr ttt" voices of presidents, Rastafarians

and sodfathers, all complete with gestures

"nJ i.."ntt. Sam invented this world partly

io i.rt" himself, but mainly to amuse those

he loved. We can only dream of what he

ri*ttt ttu"" done with tllis world in the "real"*o;iJ of entertainment that was just coming

*itttin ttit grasp in New York' But then again'

i;;;l;tt;t p"rrpbte, at best, to inspire others?

iir'i *oira certainly inspired all those lucky

unouett to meet and know him' All of us have

ul"n'intpit"A by his unique and original

"n"rsv. W" can never forget his words' ttls

voicJi, his sense of f un and of the absurd' we'his friends and family who loved him' cannot

""J ttiii ""t

forget this warm and impish

figrt" ""a

his infiuence on us' Twenty-three

vears mav be only part of a lifetime' but for

i;; ii ;;;tough time to create a world'

n"J *itil" Sam hai left our world' he has left

;il ;;;h oi us a Part of his world' we will

never forget him.

--Carrett Jewett

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)

)

l'm really at a loss for words' This is the

seiond brother that l've lost, lost at a time in

his tife when you aren't supposed to lose;

you're only supposed to gain' l'm very un-

happy.' '-K tt"pp"nt at times like these, a team of

p"opte rj.jtts together in order to help each

btttit ttttorgtt, I guess to be modern we

ihould call iia "task force"' You can tell a lot

"Uouiftoww"ttwe're goingto go on from the

oualitv of our people here' Sam was a sweet

euv, a good brother. The people we have here"mrilrning him are the best. Hard as it is, we'regoins to Pull through.- t don;t believe in Cod, rnyself' I don't

, believe that justice comes f rom outside like a

catered meal. I do believe that we create our

own conditions for living, for care, for sym-

oathv. That's what we're going to have to do'

foe're traveling by night through a vast

wooded space. Wild beasts snatch members

of ow p"hy, without logic, without justice'

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without reprieve. There's only one kind ofpower in the darkness: We build up our fire,we keep tabs on each other, we hold our-selves together and get on with our journey.So lef s stick together, and we'll make it.

--Daniel Cordon

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l've lost my best friend. I can't just buryhim withouttryingto make some sense outofhis brief but teeming tife. All I could sayatfirstwhen I heard that Sam was dead was, "God, itfeels as if l've lost a brother." But he was so

much more than that. We were as close as

t\,vo people could be. Our thoughts 'richo-

cheted off of each other in a tacit shorthand.Our voices and intonations were so alike thatfor fun we'd fool people on the telephone bytrading ottthe receiverwhen we weretired oftalking to a friend. We had a mutual admira-tion society; we shared each othe/s successes

with joy, and we were supportive as hellwhen one of us failed.

Sam's life was joy. His seeming surenessand aloofness was a cover for the deepsensitivity he had for people in need' His

compulsive need to make people laugh was

not merely a vain conceit- it was his ownspecial way of probing for the truth, his ownway of dealing with the vagaries of life. His

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love for people was expressed by conceivinga world the way he wanted it to be, and thendrawing everybody along into it for the f un ofthe ride. He hadawonderful nonsenseworld,full of a nonsense language which railedagainst the pomposity and pretentiousnessof everyday life. This language is an indeliblepart of our lives. There was a simple, direct,often naive quality to his world: He told me,when he was a teenager, that he often wishedthat people would approach each other witha "thumb-up" or "thumb-down"- to showwhether or not they wanted to get to knoweach other. His dreams swept people alongwith a contagious joy. He had the mostcurious mix of spiritualism and materialismthat I have ever seen. And vet, with Sam, itwas all so believable- he had the charismaand the talent to make the irrational rational,

the incongruous reasonable.Sam could certainly win people with his

humor, but he was also a serious man. His

deep conviction that there is more to life than

whai he called - in his mock Far Eastern

".iJnt - the "material plane" - was some'

itrins f,e made me believe. He celebrated life

"r "'t"r." that cannot die' "Why not b-e-lieve

tiii", n" would say, "in the absence of better

evidence?"- -lu Coa, I will miss Sam on l&rs plane of

.*ittLnie-out daily lives-more deeply

irr"n I ."n say. To bury such a lover of life is

i't "

tt"J"tt tt ing I have ever done' But I feel

iu.tt i*"ttn,*aim glowfrom him' He bright-

ened my life as no one else has, and no one

else can.Eleven Years ago I wrote:

A bloodshot heaven castsits serPents eye

On those whom no one thoughtcould die.

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Sam never feared death, and it is this couragewhich runs so powerfully through me rightnow. He loved big parties, so we wish wecould just have a bash. But we are all heretogether, all of his friends, as one. And this is

the deepest tribute we can pay to Sam.

--Jeremy Cordon