The Quixote That We All Carry Inside
Alonso Quijano is a man whose brain “dries up” from reading adventure books so much. Any given day breaks the border that separates the real world from the literary world and that is when he becomes “Don Quixote de La Mancha”, the character who undertakes a relentless fight against imaginary enemies, for the love of a maiden who does not pass to be a name.
For many, Don Quixote is a masterful representation of the purest idealism. A man who is out of reality and who acts erratically in pursuit of goals that are ultimately only in his mind. For others, Don Quixote condenses the human desire to transcend an ordinary world and be able to see it from a higher perspective.
For Alonso Quijano that grotesque world that surrounds him is not enough. He does not want to adapt and that is why he renounces it, first immersing himself in the stories of chivalry and then writing with his own actions a story that goes beyond eating, sleeping and taking small selfish benefits from each situation. When Alonso Quijano regains his reason, he dies.
The reason and the unreason of Don Quixote
What we call “common sense” sometimes leads us to act in a truly irrational way. Some are capable of passing over those they love, and even themselves, by being consistent with what they aspire to. Or they get to adapt to suffocating routines in which they never feel happy or free. Other people become obese eating garbage in front of a television …
However, and although it is paradoxical, all these “crazy things” are considered as relatively “normal” in society. Since they do not really break with the usual, they are not considered a risk, nor a danger, nor something that really needs to be questioned.
In spite of everything, deep within each one of us there is a flame that from time to time lights up and hints that life is much more. We were not born to grow, work, reproduce, and die. We were not born simply to accept social mandates about how we should be and live.
We all dream of a great love that makes us capable of unthinkable feats, as happened to Don Quixote. We all dream of having a cause that fills our lives with meaning and awakens that audacious hero within us. Some of the happiest moments are precisely those in which some conviction leads us to move against what is imposed.
Idealisms and passions
Unfortunately, even our passions are often induced and channeled by others. There are those who assume the role of Don Quixote around a soccer team. Some fans have been known to be killed or killed for “defending” a jersey. The same is true of some political or religious ideologies. Those who hold them feel like crusaders who must go to any extreme as long as their ideas triumph.
Others, who perhaps seek a world where there is more justice, greater solidarity or more love, are often called “Quixotes. ” Large projects, with a high touch of imagination and great obstacles to overcome, are called “quixottes.” All this to emphasize that it is about idealisms, which, obviously, go against the practical.
Even so, there are also many men and women who manage to break that armor imposed by social mandates. They listen to their hearts and that is why they manage to gather enough courage to break with the imposed schemes. They are capable of going out to fight for a better world, like Don Quixote, regardless of whether they have to face windmills that look like giants or giants that disguise themselves as windmills.
At the same time, it can unleash rejection, reproof or ridicule, because that is the normal reaction of those who are domesticated compared to those who decide to wield their will. For some, Don Quixote is a hilarious cartoon. For others, a metaphor for the enormous greatness and the deep, but valid, frustration that comes from daring to follow dreams.
