A View from the Windmill

I love the story of Don Quixote.  For those of you not acquainted, it is the story of a man who imagines himself a knight.  Frequently, he sees things in ways no one else does.  Many think he is insane, but he chooses to see a world of chivalry.  His true love is a servant girl easily ignored.  He gives her the name Dulcinea.  His family is concerned with their image and what his "insanity" will cause them, but he persists to be a knight, righting all kinds of perceived wrongs. 

Possibly the most famous scene is when he fights the windmills.  He rides up on his worn out old workhorse, Rocinate, and sees giants where everyone else sees only windmills.  As his trusted sidekick, Sancho Panza tries to help him see, these are only windmills, Don Quixote answers, "'One may easily see,' said Don Quixote, 'that you have but little acquaintance with such matters of adventures.'"

Life is an adventure, a gift from God, a gift to be enjoyed.  Not all of it is pleasurable, not all of it is fun, but it is all an adventure.  In fact, after the windmill battle, Don Quixote was rather injured, and sometimes our adventures leave us battered and bruised.  My prayer is that I will not see life through the same lens everyone else does, but rather, by God's grace, I can see myself as a knight, in service to a greater King.  May I be able to look at life as an adventure, given to me by my King.  And may I see people and situations more as He does, even if people think me insane.  That means sometimes my view comes from the windmills that I fight.  A view that might seem crazy to some, but allows me to see things differently.  I choose to dream the impossible dream, given by a God that does the impossible.  This is the song from the play, Man of LaMancha, a play loosely based on the novel.

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 lie 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 reach the unreachable star