Chasing Rainbows & Fighting Windmills

While stumbling down many stardust paths since heaven knows when, several life-changing quests have led me up many mountains and down several rabbit holes. Musical movies planted seeds in my psyche and soul many miles back, and I’ve never been able to shake their impacts on how I see the world. The Wizard of Oz put me on the yellow brick road for a spell, where Dorothy and I were “always chasing rainbows, watching clouds drifting by…waiting to find a bluebird in vain…” But thanks to our dear special needs friends, we kept going until we found our Emerald City together.

Even after encountering the Wicked Witch of the West, we skipped and sang together that we “were off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.” The Lion in desperate need of courage; the Tinman in need a heart; and the Scarecrow lacking a brain. Or so they all thought. As the song by America put it: “Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn’t already have…”

Somewhere along the trail, I ran full force into Don Quixote, The Man of la Mancha, and his invaluable sidekick, Sancho. Their quest was to “Dream the impossible dream; to fight the unbeatable foe; to bear with unbearable sorrow; to run where the brave dare not go.” Even “to march into hell for a heavenly cause.” The landscape for this quest was the Iberian peninsula which happen to be full of windmills that Quixote mistook for dreaded giants. “Look your worship”, said Sancho; “What we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go.”

The other haunting song from a musical movie that set me thinking in circles was nestled in the score by Michelle Legrand for The Thomas Crown Affair in 1968: Round, like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel,/ Never ending or beginning on an ever-spinning reel,/Like a snowball down a mountain or a carnival balloon,/ Like a carousel that’s turning, running rings around the moon,/ Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face,/ And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space,/ Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

While we are all stumbling over our stardust, our heads and hearts are always searching for rainbows and bluebirds. Like Don Quixote, our better angels are always looking for ways to make this a more just and beautiful world for all of us. To see life not just as it is but as it ought to be. As the curtain gets ready to end the drama, Quixote explains his magical vision behind his quest: And the world will be better for this: That one man, scorned and covered with scars, Still strove, with his last ounce of courage, To reach … the unreachable star …

With these final thoughts of having shared our Sunday mornings together, this edition of Stumbling Over Stardust brings down the final curtain on our adventure. Last one out, please turn off the lights! Thank each and everyone of you for your diligent readership that kept this writer on his best behavior while still chasing rainbows and fighting windmills in his quest to find the wisdom of age itself. From now on, “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits…”, and that’s my cue!