To Make a World of Gold."
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For decades, I have viewed Don Quixote as one of my mentors. Interestingly, decades ago, I was much younger. Now, as I am much older, the man of La Mancha is more my mentor of mine. I am a knight-errant. Before you write my belief off as sheer nonsense, I implore you to read this essay. Don Quixote said, "I come in a world of iron, to make a world of gold." Years ago, I got his message...at least, I thought I understood it. I too desired the same vocation of making things of iron, which were common place, into the brilliance of gold. My family laughed at most of my attempts to retool my world into a radiance of gold. For example, years ago, one of my children gave me a wall clock as a gift. It is a lovely clock, but it didn't radiate gold. Therefore, I took care of that problem in the name of Don Quixote. 
You laugh, and so did they. They missed my Don Quixote-esque message. In spite of their indifference to my quest, I joisted with other windmills around my house. 
This is an old Chinese lantern that is well over a century old. No one around my home liked it, since it was just a bland metal lantern...merely a thing like iron. I transformed it into a gold-leafed thing of wonder. 
This also is from China. Before my restoration quest, it was quite dull. Now, look at it.
On one of my overseas travels to Greece, I picked this up in an antique shop. While it is a treasure of mine, it needed to have the Don Quixote golden transformation. 
I was able to transform this head of Buddha also via gold-leaf.
This is my Don Quixote-esque golden box.
This is a candleholder featuring four golden dragons.
These bookends adorn my bookshelf while adorned in gold. However, while I have been successful in my quests converting the iron to gold in my world, being a knight-errant like Don Quixote isn't quite that simplistic. We both had other windmills in life with which we have joisted and failed. Don Quixote, in this quest with the windmill called Dulcinea, got nowhere in transforming iron to the radiance of gold as he perceived her. Her retort was "The world is a dung heap, and we are maggots that crawl on it." He willingly opened his heart to her, but Dulcinea would have none of it. Nevertheless, that is not the end of the story. What was Don Quixote's response to rejection and being call a maggot crawling on the dung heap of life? Don Quixote returns to the joisting with life's windmills while dreaming the impossible dreams of life. 
As Don Quixote rode off, I listened carefully to what he said to me and all other knights-errant, "Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be." In the 20th century, the theme song from Flashdance says the same thing.
This video is from Flashdance.
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Visit the "Don Quixote" page to read more about this topic.
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Visit The Mentors and Me page to read more about this topic. 06/29/16 Follow @mountain_and_me |
