Are You Mad? Am I? Welcome to the World of Don Quixote

It is not for us to judge whether others are crazy or not, but to view their actions based on what they are doing of value with their lives. Are they promoting a healthy life-oriented lifestyle or are they contributing to the destruction of our world environment? This is the same question we must each ask ourselves and hopefully, if we genuinely desire to grow into the most advanced form of life we can in our current state of being, we will be truthful in our answer.

 “But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.

‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat.

‘We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’

‘How do you know I’m mad? Said Alice.

‘You must be,” said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’”

                                                              ~Lewis Carroll from “Alice in Wonderland”

We all have a little Don Quixote in us.

A little madness?

Of course!

A somewhat slightly veiled perception of life?

Without a doubt! 

Similar to the gallant knight, most of us also desire to find our nobler self, to do something meaningful and worthwhile with our existence.

And we all have our dreams!

Oh, the dreams we have!

In some of our wildest imaginings, the majority probably try to envision ways that we can be part of ending all the wars, fighting and insanity, to help create a world where people can live together in peace.

We may all be inflicted with a touch of craziness, and have our own altered perspectives of life. But reminiscent of Don Quixote, we also have our noble ambitions, and our dreams of being a valued part of an illustrious achievement.

Since we all struggle in our interactions with the bizarre craziness we find in the outside world of “reality,” there is something to be said for “seeing” the world as a better place.

The next step though is taking action. This necessitates doing our part, contributing what we can to formulate and construct a planetary society where we can achieve our goals of a healthier, safer earthly world for life, and create a surrounding of honor and nobility that would make our knightly friend proud.

If we bond together in our efforts with all the helpful caring knights (and knightesses) already out there doing what they can to improve our world situation, our “unreachable dream” doesn’t seem so out of touch.

If we can find the Sanchez within our selves, and others, to provide friendship and support for those involved in worthy, valiant quests, “the world will be better for this!”

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

                                                                                                 ~William Shakespeare

The box office is open to the theatre of our human playhouse, our global theatre in-the-round. Once again we’re being called to the stage for an interactive, audience participation, performance.

The stagehands are ready to take a crack at recreating a new reality room set, one that works well with our background scenery. The Designer’s artistically creative vision is in place, and the Choreographer has provided our instructions and cues.

This is the curtain call epoch of our own lifetime. If there is something extra-special that we want to accomplish with our personal actress or actor, to embody this being’s peak, illustrious performance and encore, we should do it soon. There’s talk of this production going under.

We are a gathering alliance of cast members, collaborating as part of a life union, to create a new, fresh, happening verve for promoting our theater production of :

“A Life Happening… Hope for the Living Dead!”

This realistic life play has it all! It is filled with drama and comedy, tragic skits and slapstick sketches.

The storyline follows a worldwide underground movement where its members are spurred to action in the face of a possibly devastating tragedy.

As word spreads, the group discovers that the overwhelming majority of the mainstream inhabitants living in their world commends and endorses their efforts. The only drawback, accounting for their own hesitation to participate more actively, is due to the pressure imposed upon them by their own religious leaders and governments.

Eventually, recognizing that their sheer numbers are overwhelming to those of the soldiers in the armies, and the fact that they have also learned that most of the soldiers also support their efforts, they undertake the mission of a lifetime.

Soon a charter agreement is being circulated outlining the groups’ position. It is based on their worldly vision for a peaceful accord, where everyone’s signature is required to validate it, and where people sign with the quintessence and personification of how they live their lives.

Of course the authorities find out, entailing some classic espionage where the coalition is challenged in their struggle to survive.

But, I can’t give away the ending. There still appears to be so much to come.

But as long as the curtain hasn’t fallen, there is still time for another act. Let’s just hope that the closing act on our real life play, won’t be our final curtain call.

“A person needs a little madness, …or else…

they never dare cut the rope and be free.”

~Nikos Kazantzakis, made famous in “Zorba the Greek”

Sanity, or insanity, can be a tough call. So many of our understandings depend on our own individual perspectives. It’s not just “walking a mile in the other persons moccasins or shoes,” it’s being inside their minds and emotions, experiencing their atypical version of reality.

How do they see, feel and know whatever it is that they perceive to be real in their life?

To some, our world may resemble a planetary buoy, floating along the outer shores of deep space.  From our side of the beach, it is hard to visualize that we, and this astrophysical ocean, are the same substance, a tapestry of energy, light and matter.

All the while, Planet Earth is forever spinning around, swirling like a top being powered by some extremely super charged, extra energized, life batteries.

This has been going on for as long as we know. Its energy source is older than ancient. Yet, in some ways, it also seems so advanced. We don’t even need to recharge it. And it doesn’t pollute!

Although sometimes, it does make you wonder where this tremendously focused, concentrated power really does come from?

But, one of the best deals around, Earth’s ticket seems punched for millenniums of unlimited rides. We and our planet, on an astral plane, flying circles around the sun.  It’s the planetary ride of a lifetime, just auto-pilot cruising on the flowing energy current of a cosmic lazy river.

 Yet, for all our stellar ventures into space, in point of fact, we have barely moved away from the exterior surface of our planet.  So how could any of us actually know what exists in, and beyond, the outer reaches of our universe?

But, perhaps the more currently relevant question is:

Should we be looking out, or looking in?

The answer, as we all know but too many tend to ignore, is…both!

As is the case with most explorers, we probably won’t know what we will find on the other side, or inside, until we get there.

“Each generation's job is to question what parents accept

on faith, to explore possibilities, and adapt the last

generation's system of values for a new age.”

                                                                                      ~Frank Pittman

Trying to make “sense of it all” makes some people mad! But which is crazier? Is someone crazier for refusing to accept the (not so) long-range implications of their actions, and by doing so, choosing to follow a way of thinking that will lead to overwhelming death and destruction? Or is a person more insane if they fantasize about a healthier, happier world, where the planet’s inhabitants can enjoy their lives together? By pursuing their objectives, which of these people is displaying the seemingly superior degree of sanity?