Q is for Quest

Even though I am not particularly drawn to adventure, I love the idea of a quest. In fact, I often refer to the most ordinary of errands as a quest (it livens things up to say it that way) The Quest for Bread is much more interesting than ‘running to the supermarket.’

(I suppose this is the part where, despite my love of quests, I confess that I haven’t seen Lord of the Rings. I never heard of the book as a child so I never read it, and I don’t feel particularly drawn to that particular type of fantasy. Even though I read about vampires and the like all the time, I am not so much into wizards and elves type of fantasy. Anyway, I know that that is the quest book of all quest books, but I haven’t gotten there yet.)

I guess the storyteller in me is drawn to the nature of the hero’s journey, the familiar storyline, the knowledge that things are going to be difficult but that there will be growth, there will be a sort of okay at the end. Wouldn’t it be great if we could know that in real life, that no matter what happens things will kind of even out?
Actually, in a way, we can actually be sure of that. Things do have a kind of way of evening out over all, just not for individual people. And, as individual people, we, understandably, resent that. We want it to turn out okay for us, not just for humankind overall. Averaging out won’t help us personally.

That, in turn, kind of makes me think about the panic about the planet and its health. While I wholeheartedly agree that we should be doing more to connect ourselves with nature, and that we need to take better care of the planet as a whole, the issue is not really the planet, it is us. We are making the planet uninhabitable for ourselves. The planet will be fine. If we kill ourselves off with the things we do, everything will grow over, the earth will find a new equilibrium and it will carry on. I wonder how much further we would get with the campaigns if we phrased them that way? I guess climate change deniers would be all ‘I can still breathe fine, there’s nothing wrong here!’
Wow, that’s really getting to the heart of the problem hey? The difference between people who hear of someone else’s issue and respond with compassion and the people who hear of someone else’s issue and run to tell them that they are wrong. I really want to be the first type of person.

Becoming more compassionate is kind of my whole quest in life, really. I don’t mean that I want to let people away with bad things or that I want to become weak, I mean that I want to find a way to have ease when I think of other people.

I can often do that now, but I would like to be even better at it.

How about you? What would you say is your quest in life?

2 thoughts on “Q is for Quest

  1. I like your take on Quest – in particular when you discuss issues of planetary health. There’s a frightening aspect to people who are so certain of their ‘rightness’. My quest is for knowledge and to be open to having my opinion challenged and changed by imperical evidence.

  2. One of my quests is to get well. I’ve been battling several illnesses and injuries. I have Fibromyalgia, Celiac Disease, a herniated disc and arthritis…among other things. My other quest is to keep doing what I love to do, making pottery, writing stories and taking photos.

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