Man of La Mancha, Model of Goodfinding

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Man of La Mancha, Model of Goodfinding
Created by Michael H. Cheney
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Model of Goodfinding

• Don Quixote serves as a model of a Goodfinder.
• His benevolent vision (the third eye of the
  Buddha) allow him to see the potential goodness,
  beauty, and truth in all persons, places, or
  situations.

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Quixotes Motto Bring out the best!
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• 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 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!
• -- Man From La Mancha

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Every man is potentially a knight
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Every woman is potentially a lady
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Looking for and finding good

• Road to El Toboso
• Mule Drivers
• Germina
• Plow horse
• Wash rag
• Aldonza
• Innkeeper
• Inn

• Road to Adventure
• Gentle knights
• My Lady
• Gallant steed (Rocinante)
• Purest gossamer
• Dulcinea
• Señor Castellano
• Castle

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Are we like windmills?

• To see reality on the surface is to be like a
  windmill that is not self-directed or
  self-motivated
• Not to reflect on life is to live like a robot, a
  windmill.
• People who follow the status quo without
  reflecting on, evaluating, and discerning the
  rationale of their actions, life styles, or
  pursuits are like windmills.

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We must become self-determining

• We must transcend the status quo when it is
  unjust.
• We must refuse to follow or be determined by
  prestige, power, and peer pressure.
• We must become people of all seasons.

Conform?
Rebel?
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Discussion Questions

• The innkeeper dubs Quixote as a knight-errant.
• How do we dub each knights?

Affirmation
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The Family of Quixote (Were only thinking of
him)

• Represents parents, peers, relatives, siblings,
  or whoever tries to persuade us to abandon our
  dreams.
• Often those whom we are closest to are the very
  ones who demand that we toll the line, be like
  all others, fit the norm.

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Significance of the Knight of the Mirrors
-newspaper headlines

• Represents anything that tries to persuade us to
  abandon our benevolent vision of reality.
• Give examples of persuasions

• -media

• -prevailing negative attitudes of society

• -human sin and sinfulness

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Code of Honor
Discuss the meaning of Quixotes code.
Does it sound Christian?
Would it work in todays world?
Could you personally live by it?

• Call nothing thine except thy soul
• Love not what thou art, but only what thou may
  become.
• Do not pursue pleasure, for thou may have the
  misfortune to overtake it
• Look always forward in last years nest there
  are no birds this year.
• Be just to all men courteous to all women.
• Live in the vision of whom all great deeds are
  done

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• Don Quixotes not dead. Believe, Sancho.
  Believe!
• Dulcinea

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Jesus the Ultimate Goodfinder

• His dream is the Reign of God
• Gods intention that we live as brothers and
  sisters in a community of faith, hope, and love
  in union with the whole created universe.