It is through our failures that we find who we really are

The Lancer
Off the Cuff
Trial By Fire
April 29th 2014 (20 minutes)


So I've been trying for some time to come up with a good article to
start off my foray in this blog. Everything seemed all wrong or to go
amiss, and etc. Currently I am sitting in a laboratory where many of
my experiments are not running properly, and I have a rather fiery
boss to contend with, along with a now rather unhelpful co-worker.

But last night I was reminded of one of my favorite musicals, and
easily one of my favorite reads in high school: Don Quixote (in
musical form: Man of La Mancha). The reason why Don Quixote is so
charming is because he doesn’t really care about his chances. He does
what he does, and yes he looks rather silly tilting at windmills. However
the raw passion Don Quixote has dominates over
any cowering nature Alonso Quijana may have had; a mindset that plagued
men of Cervantes time, and plagues many men of the present day.

This is not to say there are not great examples set by men like
Eisenhower, Zhuge Liang (Chinese Strategist), Ataturk and etc. but
more often than not we only see the highlight reels.

The first thing about a gentleman is he knows how to fall. He knows
how to fall with grace, and to rise again above it to become even
finer than ever. Not just to fall either, but teach others how to
avoid the fall, or how to rise above it again like he. In our day and
age social media has made it so falling is a damning sign of
inferiority, when previously errors were far more tolerated. I have
realized that in the past few years I have shown signs of extreme
intolerance against errors. In such a world Don Quixote is no longer a
hero but a fool. But it is men like Don Quixote who really live. Sure
better planning may be advisable to him, and this may be his fault.
However if I have noticed one thing is that modern “men” are not
remotely quixotic enough. Instead pessimism dominates and shrouds
itself in intelligence.

Thus I write this rant to point out that we are far too cautious. Do I
dare disturb the universe? Yes, because a gentleman would. And a
gentleman would be more than happy to land on his backside than to
simply sit on it pondering.


All for now,
Best Wishes,
Lancer


PS: Yes I am about to go tilt at a wind turbine. Wish me luck.