For the Rest of My Life?
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A friend of mine, after reading I Am Looking for Another Dancer, was a bit critical of my article. It was not so much my use of the pictorial metaphor of two ballet dancers to make my point, but he dissed my comment about not liking to dance in general. In retrospect, perhaps fearing having to dance with someone was an overstatement, but I just don't like dancing. It doesn't come to me naturally. My friend suggested, beyond not liking to dance, that I need to improve what I already know about dancing if I am serious about finding my Dulcinea. He added that my two dances with death were successful, but I needed to do something soon for my time remaining here on Earth is dwindling. My retort was that I would like to date and possibly find my Dulcinea. Nonetheless, the notion of learning how to dance better than I can now seems a bit of a stretch for me on both counts of improving my dance skills and finding my Dulcinea. He looked at me and said that I really had no other choice. I had to act. After our lunch, I thanked my friend of many years and said that I would think about his suggestion. However, improving upon my dance steps or finding Dulcinea really will test my Don Quixote-esque ability of dreaming those impossible dreams. I went home and prepared for the upcoming week's classes that I was teaching and proofed some articles before they were sent to my web administrator. Later on in the afternoon, I started preparing a dinner for Kristin and Ayanna, my daughter and granddaughter, who were coming for dinner. After dinner, the two of them went to my office where Kristin translated some Spanish related to Don Quixote and Ayanna explained to her papa how to download songs on iTunes. I had selected a long list of classical pieces but wasn't sure how to pay for them, get them downloaded, and then categorize them. After understanding what the Spanish meant, Ayanna showed me the iTunes process. I told her that I used the classical music as background music while teaching online or writing essays for my website. Therefore, she created a classical folder and transferred the classical pieces to that folder. I also wanted her to begin to download some of my rock music to a separate folder, since I can't concentrate on either teaching or writing with Bohemian Rhapsody, What a Feeling, or Karma Chameleon playing in the background. Ayanna finished the downloading of those three pieces and created a folder for them. I told her that I would download some additional popular music during the week. So, during the week, I selected some tunes that I liked from many years ago. Ironically, I came across an old Anne Murray song, Could I Have This Dance. Stumbling across that tune seems like it was some cosmic musical muse who wanted that piece included due to my hatred of dancing.
There I sat listening to Anne Murray singing. I morphed back and forth between Don Quixote dreaming impossible dreams of Dulcinea and my personal quest to find a modern-day version of Dulcinea. If I were to go on that quest, it would require greatly improving my dancing ability. Wouldn't it be nice to find my Dulcinea, and, instead of my running around like Don Quixote joisting with windmills, she was to approach me? Okay, that might be stretching my dreaming a bit even beyond that of Don Quixote's impossible dreams. Nonetheless, she could approach me and say, "Hi, Don Quixote. My name is Dulcinea; let me help you learn to dance better." Therefore, we went to go to the computer in my office, she clicked on the iTunes rock folder, and she selected a dance tune. There we were dancing to Could I Have This Dance. 
Before you or my friend, who I had lunch with about my other essay, comment about this essay, Dulcinea approaching me and dancing might seem like an impossible dream that might seem farfetched. That being said, my mentor Don Quixote's life was based upon impossible dreams. Actually, another mentor of mine, Bobby Kennedy, said, "Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not." Finally, this essay is about me. What can you learn from it beyond the reality that I dream things and go own my quest to realize them? If you aren't familiar about the Man of La Mancha, go to my tool bar, click on search, and type in Don Quixote. You will benefit from one of my mentors. Think that you would waste your time attempting to identify with Don Quixote? That is a fatal flaw to living. When you are finished with all the Don Quixote essays, go to the Last Lecture or Dancing with Death and learn about another mentor of mine, Randy Pausch.
Visit the Bobby Kennedy page to read more about this topic.
Visit the The Last Lecture page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Dancing with Death page to read more about this topic.
Visit the My Hauntings page to read more about this topic.
Visit the "Don Quixote" page to read more about this topic.
Visit The Mentors and Me page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Music I Love and Why page to read more about this topic. 03/11/16 Follow @mountain_and_me |
