Don Quixote
Author: John Bisceglia
So if anyone is in Christ, there a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new! 2 Corinthians 5:17
In Cervantes’ prophetic novel we see on the surface an old man who is resisting change that many of us can feel akin to, but a deeper understanding brings us to a visionary who sees things and people not as they are, but as they can be in their full potential.
Aldonza, a self-proclaimed prostitute and “gutter wench,” is seen as Dulcinea, a lady of the highest regard and angelic in her ways, his portly drunken servant as noble squire to a knight, and Don Quixote himself not as a broken-down feeble man but as a knight on a quest from God, with his shaving basin that he sees as a golden helmet. On his quest he encounters many obstacles, but the one that is his downfall is a mirror where he sees himself and he falters in his quest until the transformed Aldonza, who is now Dulcinea, reminds him of his noble quest.
In the musical “Man of La Mancha” the song The Impossible Dream voices that quest:
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
In this time of uncertainty about tomorrow let us have this view of not what is but of what it can be. Getting out of bed can be difficult but hope and vision can carry us through the worst of times. As Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians, we can be that new creation, can let go of the past, and be transformed!
God of many names, let us find hope, love, and transformation in these fearful times. You are love and help us love ourselves through these times.
