I found a little obscure book of poetry called Woolgathering by Mary Lee Kimbrough Harris that had this poem:

Quest

Of all the good things that I had
As through my life I gaily trod,
Still one thing more was missing,
I had not found my Christ, my God.

Through shaded wood across the hills,
Along the sparkling, rippling rills,
I trudged- looking everywhere,
But He, my Savior, was not there.

In sunny field of daisy bloom,
In hazy gloom of twilight gloom,
I searched with all my heart and mind,
But He, my Savior, did not find.

I searched the country far and wide,
I even crossed the ocean's tide.
In old cathedrals, hallowed, dim;
I searched and searched but found not Him.

At last my search was over,
Long years after it began,
With meek, changed heart, I found Him,
My Savior, in the heart of man.


I had been going through a Pollyanna stage ever since I found the classic at the flea market where Lois works. The “glad game” has helped me find gratitude when things looked very bleak. I opened up Marianne Williamson's book, Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, and there she is on page 97.

"A prime example of a miracle worker is Pollyanna. The ego knows this, which is why she is constantly invalidated in this culture. She walked into a situation where everyone had been in a nasty mood for years. She chose not to see the nastiness. She had faith in what lay beyond it. She extended her perception beyond what her physical senses revealed to her, to what her heart knew to be true about every human being. It didn't matter how anyone behaved. Pollyanna had faith in the love she knew existed behind anyone's fear, and thus she invoked their love into expression. She exercised the power of forgiveness."

I'd been back in my Don Quixote stage due to some sharing from my on-line Al-Anon group and he appeared in Carol Lynn Pearson's book, Consider the Butterfly: Transforming Our Lives through Meaningful Coincidences on page 55 and 56.

"[In the musical] Man of La Mancha [there is a] transformation of the rough and degraded Aldonza into the Lady Dulcinea because Don Quixote refused to see anything but her beauty."

From the musical, Man of La Mancha: "Take a deep breath of life and consider how it should be lived. Call nothing thine own- except thy soul. Love not what thou art, but only what thy may become...Look always forward- in last year's nest there are no birds this year. Be just to all men, be courteous to all women. Live always in the vision of that one who great deed are done- She is called Dulcinea."

I had talked of labels at various times with friends and Anthony De Mello addressed those in his essays that I found on-line but so did Carol Lynn Pearson on page 104.

"Perhaps our job is to see beneath each other's name tags, not even to see the name tags. Perhaps I need to be clear about which issues are really important and which are just irritations that are, after all, none of my business. To know when to stand up and speak out, and when to sit down and shut up. And to just enjoy the show."

I shared all of this with a friend yesterday via e-mail and his only response was that he needed to read the book, Don Quixote. He didn't seem to get the message I was trying to send him.

It's not about reading Don Quixote. Don Quixote is just a character I identify with. The only thing most people remember about him is his jousting with windmills. He was so much more than that.

Don Quixote was delusional, that's true. He was pursuing a dead dream- the dream of becoming a knight. It was an impossible dream in that knights no longer existed. But he represents more than that. In his quest he practiced the Christian values that were preached about in the early churches. He exhibited kindness, trust, patience, perseverance, etc. But his greatest accomplishment was that of unconditional love.

Don Quixote took for himself a rough, uneducated neighbor named Sancho Panza to be his squire. He saw beyond his exterior, his labels, and loved him unconditionally. Sancho Panza was elevated not only in position but in life. He began to exhibit the same qualities as his master.

When it came time for our hero to choose a lady to fight for he chose a common woman, a scullery maid and prostitute named Aldonza. Aldonza had been spat upon, mistreated, overlooked, etc. She had had a very bad life and trusted no one. Don Quixote looked beyond all of that and saw the beauty that lay beneath. He saw her as a child of God. He saw the love of God in her. He elevated her from that position because he loved her unconditionally. Because he believed her to be a lady, she became one. In turn, she began to try to exhibit the same qualities that he possessed. There are other examples of this in the story.

The same was true of Pollyanna, the character that appeared in a Disney movie. She was taught by her father to look beyond the situation and find something to be glad about. It's not shown very accurately in the movie but in the book she made it a practice to associate with every person in the community no matter what their economic status was (to the horror of her Aunt Polly), including prostitutes. She looked beyond the labels and saw the beauty within.

Both characters are good examples of how Christ operated here on earth. Did he associate with the leaders of the religious community or the very wealthy? No. He associated with the common man. He saw beyond their labels and loved them for the child of God that they were.

But it is more than that. Both characters loved as Jesus did without any expectations. They already saw the "clay feet" of their neighbors and loved them any way. Both characters treated everyone they met with the same attitude just as Jesus did. They had no double standards. Men and women were treated with the same equal courtesy. Rich and poor were treated with the same respect. No one was treated differently.

The whole point was about unconditional love. People are people, period. Where we lose our ability to love unconditionally is when we have expectations of others. In one of my Al-Anon books I read, "Expectations are premeditated resentments" and in another I read, "resentments mark the place where I see myself as a victim." What the two characters show is that it is better to love without expectations. Expectations are strings we attach.

If you've not ever read nor seen Pollyanna, Don Quixote, or Man of La Mancha you have missed a treat. In the musical Man of La Mancha, there is a song called the Impossible Dream that speaks of a quest. Do you see the synchronicity there? How much more clear can it be?

God is Love. I was made in His image and so were you. If He is love, then so are we. I'm called on to look beyond labels or name tags- mine, yours, anyone's- to see the beauty that lies beneath or as Marianne Williams puts it:

"In a holy relationship, we're interested in the picture itself. All we want by way of a frame is a light support that does just enough to keep the picture in place. We're not interested in our brother for what he can do for us. We're interested in our brother, period."