Pardon My Insanity

During a recent social media debate on gun regulation with a friend and Masonic Brother, I had an epiphany. No, he didn’t convince to purchase a handgun any more than I convinced him that some gun control might prevent the next school shooting. It was more the way we concluded our discussion. Nothing bad, I assure you. We parted on the square, still respect each other, and remain friends. He even paid me a compliment by telling me that our discussion gave him and his lovely wife something to discuss and think about. He then said, “You will never make sense in the real world.”

Don Quixote by Pablo Picasso

At first I was a bit put off by this comment. It was like complimenting a dueling opponent by telling him, “I so admire how your blood shimmers on the edge of my blade.” But then I realized something:  He’s right.

It reminded me of one of my favorite passages from “The Man from La Mancha,” the Broadway musical based on El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. I love this musical and would love to play the lead character someday, and I have read the Putnam translation of this magnificent novel.

I use the following passage as an audition piece. It occurs after the imprisoned author Cervantes is confronted by his fellow prisoners. The prisoners wanted to know why he and his character, Don Quixote, don’t see life as it is. His response is:

Richard Kiley as Don Quixote

I have lived nearly fifty years, and I have seen life as it is. Pain, misery, hunger ... cruelty beyond belief. I have heard the singing from taverns and the moans from bundles of filth on the streets. I have been a soldier and seen my comrades fall in battle ... or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I have held them in my arms at the final moment. These were men who saw life as it is, yet they died despairing. No glory, no gallant last words ... only their eyes filled with confusion, whimpering the question, "Why?" I do not think they asked why they were dying, but why they had ever lived.

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams—this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness—and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!

So there you have it, my philosophy. I may not be clad in rusty old armor carrying a broken lance and a crooked sword (OK, I would carry the sword if I could get away with it). But I do tilt at a windmill or two on occasion. This blog is my sword, perhaps a sword as ineffective as the one carried by Cervantes’ gallant, armored madman.

So, what are these windmills that I continue to combat? Here are a few examples:

• The ongoing pollution and destruction of the land, water, and air as well as the wholesale squandering of natural resources by entities that put their greed and profits ahead of the common good.  And don’t get me started again on the billions of dollars in subsidies many of these entities receive from the U.S. Government annually.
• Organizations that refuse to pay a living wage, or hire full time workers, and expect the
  
  government to subsidize their workers with food stamps and other assistance. Since it has been argued that approximately 70 percent of our economy is based on consumerism, doesn’t it make sense to reduce the record profits and top-end salaries of these entities, their stockholders, and their CEOs to put more money in the hands of the consumers? (SOURCE: Bureau of Economic Analysis.)
• The arrogance of some religious organizations and individuals who consider bigotry, hate, and intolerance as religious rights or freedoms. If you are unable to do your job or provide service to all people equally, perhaps you are in the wrong line of work.
• The hypocrisy of many who claim to be “pro-life” and yet are also pro-death penalty and in favor of eliminating assistance to the poor. It reminds me of a child that is no longer interested in a toy once it is out of the package.
• Politicians who express their “regret and sadness” over another church or school shooting, yet refuse to engage in an intelligent conversation about what we as a society can do to try and prevent the next one. If the answer really is doing nothing, then perhaps we should stop publicly expressing sympathy. This usually only serves to make the expresser feel better about him or herself. Instead, perhaps these politicians should express the same callousness as GOP Presidential Candidate Jeb Bush who, when confronted with news of the school shooting in Oregon, said, “Stuff happens.” Are these deaths inevitable, merely the price we pay for our Second Amendment rights? If that’s the case, maybe they should be treated with the same indifference as traffic fatalities.
• The oligarchy that our nation has become through the pressures (and money received) from corporate influences, special interests, religious organizations, and billionaires effectively purchasing politicians in both parties.
• The bullheadedness of the American citizen who insists all government is bad despite the fact that he doesn’t vote, can’t name his federal, state and local government officials, and doesn’t research the issues. Our government isn’t perfect, but the vote is our only chance to reclaim it.

Well, that is my Quixotic Manifesto. Will anything change as a result of my blog or other social media rants? Will my efforts help educate anybody? I doubt it. As I have said on several occasions: education is the art of pounding abstract ideas into concrete heads.

My ideas may not be, as my friend asserted, based in real life. So maybe I am insane.  But when life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?

Food for thought