Are you tilting at windmills? If so… don’t do so for long. All tilting accomplishes is tiring you out. Yes? Tilting may sound Don Quixotic-al romantic, but how does this help? Is that romantic and ineffectual image one that you really want to portray, to be remembered as? And if so… to whom and why? Why would you want to squander your time, energy, and resources on something unattainable? Granted, to be viewed as one who followed their grand passion is a positive… kinda… but do you want this to be who you are?
If we, mature and logical as we are, succumb to tilting, we shouldn’t cast aspersions when we see others acting similarly (not unlike the log and splinter statement in Matthew 7). Actually a bit of quixotic-ism can be ‘good’. If nothing else, it informs us of what our passions are and how far we are willing to go to pursue them. But, when we get into the territory of allowing the passion to control everything we do, then some reassessing may be in order. Passionate – yes. Quixotic-ish, perhaps not.
I think some tilting brings us that flavoring in our life but when we do ‘awaken’ (and yes, we are in a stupor of some sort) and look into our empty hands, many of us are quite amazed. Amazed at the emptiness and our own silliness. How could we??? A hard lesson to learn but one that has lasting ramifications because we can use our experience to harden ourselves. Harden? There is an alternative to becoming harden – we can become more forgiving, understanding, and gentle with our own as well as others’ foibles.
Bottom line: life is too precious, too important to waste. Windmills are always possible, how do we want to use the lessons from our Quixotic indulgence(s)? Ultimately it is our choice as to when, if, and how we choose to learn and apply lessons from our lives. I personally hate repeating earlier unlearned (or unapplied) lessons. I do believe that we can learn valuable lessons from a Quixotic-ish view of passion. Never forget that passion is important, is critical in our journey. We can also allow ourselves to experience passion as a positive motivator and not consumer.
