HAIL QUIXOTICA

    

I was referred to, for the umpteenth time by one of my friends as a combination of two of the most pathetic creatures on the planet. A person who sees and knows everything about the human experience and can predict it in some of the most inconspicuous niches of our lives to such a degree that he actually comprehends the expanse of what it is to be human, and the person who has the inability to convince others of the insight. To know what it is to be human is half the battle. To actually believe that it is worth it to elevate a human to the point that he or she can embrace it, is to achieve humanity. And that is wholly different from simply being human. One is a physical condition, the other is a transcendence to of station above animals. It is this humanity that God tries to impart to Adam that differentiates man from the animals. Blood and sinew, muscle and bone, are not unique to man. Only his understanding of what he should be beyond that of tissue and flesh is what distinguishes them above it.
Quixotic is a word that came from Don Quixote, the hero of romance written by Miguel De Cervantes. The word 'Quixotic' can apply to people who are not only caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unrealistic goals, they are embroiled within in it as a necessity to the human condition. They are dreamers who seek to enable themselves AND the world to a higher station. It also applies to people who are idealistic, romantic, and impractical. As we know, in modern day society, those descriptions aren’t always translated as flattering, and one can go as far as to say that these descriptions are a sign of weakness. Leave one foot in a noble intention and put the other into the real world, and a quixotic is viewed as a failure. Sometimes, quixotic people are accused of viewing life as an illusion, because they adhere to Utopian models of living. Like Don Quixote himself, seen as a fool and a point of comedy to tilt at windmills and believing them to be giants. But giants or no, it is a quixotic individual who surpasses the others with the bravery against seemingly insurmountable odds.
But I have to say that this is exactly the kind of person I want to be remembered for. Not as a person who had the ability to endure my existence with the substance of a store mannequin and with no more thought given to the motivations and drives of a marionette. It is precisely these types of qualities that cause us to achieve and live the extraordinary. Why? Along with the definitions found in the dictionary and thesaurus, quixotic directly ties into hope and optimism. It also translates into that crazy unbending belief that anything is possible. It allows for miracles, depth of feeling and experience. Quixotics are the very people for whom hardships can be mounted upon and know that they will continue to do it if it is for the continuation of what they know to be true. Above all, Quixotics value the wonder of love everywhere.
Imagine life without those qualities. Rather than hope and optimism, we will be left with despair, pessimism, despondence, and gloom. Sound familiar? Sound like the same escapist tools at your disposal that twist the gift of a life into a justified existence endured at the expectations of others who care little unless they can profit from it with your misguided sense of self sacrifice? The world already has enough of that. As a matter of fact, it is DROWNING in it. So, why aren’t we all taking advantage of the possibilities encapsulated in being quixotic? Most probably because while every single one of these qualities seem to be the absolute depth of the human experience, they are much more likely to be seen, rationalized, and ultimately accepted as a dismal certainty than it is to expect something far better but more unknown than what they are used to. It has been the mantra of those with power to convince those without hope that it is better to stick with what there IS, regardless of it's happiness, than to seek a more intangible truth.
The main reason, I believe, is fear of reproach, and the falling ax from those we know who reject most things idealistic. Not only is it easier to avoid the discomfort of being challenged, but we believe such qualities can get us into trouble. Our preference is to avoid perceived obstacles and pretend that the rewards will never arrive. We would rather second-guess our inherent abilities and desires and settle for a mediocre existence. Sounds like a quick way into numbness and living life half-way. I think we’re a lot better than that, and deserve more. And we have a spirit determined to send us that powerful message. The only people who ever scoffed at the notion of making decisions based on the heart were the very same people who never had the ability to recognize it as useful in the first place.
Our spirit is quixotic, whether you believe it or not. The defiance of quixotic tendencies adversely impacts the natural state of our spirit. Those idealistic and impractical qualities are the make-up of our strongest life force. This is how our spirit speaks to us and begs us to raise the bar just a little bit higher. And it expects those around us to WANT to jump to clear it, not wait you out until you lower it to their liking. It reveals crazy notions of our deepest dreams and goals, and persists until we listen. UNTIL WE LISTEN. And when we finally do respond, although things may make little sense from the outside, we feel better than ever. In fact, we suddenly feel invincible and are ready to take action. We experience the highs of being liberated, particularly from the ball and chain that keeps us from doing what we really need to be doing. And so many of us are torn down and apart by making it impossible to fight a battle on uneven ground. That the very idea of defending what can not be seen or measured against what seems so real is no different than the feeling one gets from trying to fight a grizzly bear in a phone booth by poking it in the rectum with a small stick.
Our spirit is the best part of us and requires idealism as its fuel to achieve what seems impossible. It requires the kind of blind hope and unobtrusive vision to make things happen. I say let go and give into the part of us that knows exactly what to do at all the right moments in our lifetime. These are the kind of ingredients that allow our vision of life to expand into places we could have never imagined. Remember that being quixotic can save your life when fighting an illness, bring about life-changing inventions and cures, but most of all, allows us to experience the extraordinary.
Don’t defy your spirit – defy the odds of making your dreams come true and listening to the dull voices that strive to leave you where you are for their desires at the expense of yours. End the friction between you and your strongest desires to love and be loved by listening, exploring, and expanding into new horizons. It is not enough to ignore what is present and make shallow excuses for the things that require the need of suffering and endurance to have them justified. It is so common for something large to have you balk at it's lack of cowardice as that which proves its truth. And it is no less common to look at the heroes who defend against it as being wrong because they are afraid. A person who is never afraid is not a person who understands courage. A person who IS afraid and does so anyway, regardless of fear, epitomizes it. Heroes are not made by those who know they can win. Heroes are made by those who may fail, and fight anyway.
Now I ask, do you want to be quixotic? Do you want ME to be quixotic? Are these the heroes you wish to identify with? And if you do, how is it that they will be remembered. Do you wish to see them as living in the world and fighting, or do you wish to see them as idiot's of grand ideals crushed under the sails of stoic implacable windmills? Because how the world sees these heroes will decide whether they continue within the world by you embracing these ideals as worthy, or be wiped from the face of it as unneeded or unrecognized. Because value is only given to things that have worth, and with no need to have them, there is no value to people such as this.
Quixotics continue in this world because THEY WIN, but only if their efforts are seen as more worthy than the alternative. I've taken a very good look at this, and I know that this is the type of person I want to be remembered for. If I look foolhardy for tilting at giants, then so be it. If I should die under the crushing blow of a windmill sail for something I believe in, so be it. Heroes do not become heroes because they die. Everyone dies. Heroes are made because they are willing to risk their own lives for defending and maintaining ideals under overwhelming odds. Sometimes heroes win, and sometimes heroes die. But they are heroes regardless.
So I gladly accept the title of Quixotic. It it not a shortcoming that I refuse to accept the status quo simply because the adversity is larger than myself or because I am seen as absurd to attack it.So I gladly accept the title of Quixotic. It it not a shortcoming that I refuse to accept the status quo simply because the adversity is larger than myself or because I am seen as absurd to attack it. I REFUSE to accept it because the solution is quite often the exact OPPOSITE of that which they expect of themselves, wish in their hearts, expect of others, and simply ignore as too large to fight for.
Don't let these kinds of people drift into the dust of history. If you VALUE the ideals of these kinds of people, then actively seek them. If you believe these qualities should exist in the world then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Because by shutting out the very ones who wish a bigger better world by devaluing your need for it, you take away from thebelief that it is worth fighting for. Qualities and virtues are USELESS unless they are put to use. And an unrealized quixotic left inside his own head is just as useless as an epic book unread, a painting unseen, a sculpture buried in the dirt, or a dream left unanswered. Quixotics give the world one very simple thing. The knowledge that what you wish in your heart is exactly what they believe is worth fighting for, and then go about doing it to show you it is more real than a dream.