I woke up yesterday in a state of utter contentment, even bliss. It was almost like a religious experience. It did not however lead me to even contemplate writing which is a daily compulsion. I did read some of my earlier blogs found in the related story section and therein I found I had previously addressed the issue of Don Quixote although it had slipped my mind leading me to email CPI earlier in the week asking her:
Me: Who was the guy that tilted windmills?
She: Don Quixote
“The following section is from a blog written on April , 2018 2018 when I was living in Vancouver.
I just learned something from reading a book about Don Quixote penned by Ilan Stavans. It is a library book recommended by the staff at VPL. I had seen Strauss’ Don Quixote at VSO and wanted to learn more about the guy. Stavans spoke of the ‘same lex literary pair’ Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, clear opposites. “To the degree that they complement each other, the couple —and a rather odd one—might be taken to represent examples of the “soul mate” theory presented by Plato in the Symposium ( ca 385-380 BC), which argues that humans originally had four hands, legs, lungs and a single head made of two faces, but that Zeus split humans in half, tug creating a person’s lifelong longing to find “the other half”. (pg.27)
That is fascinating – the whole concept of the ‘soul mate, is common but its origins way back when is the newbie. Stavans mentions that Trilling thinks it is all about the money but reasons that it is not money but control that is the center of the novel. “They are constantly arguing, which means control is a game played through language: we use word to make the world fit into the view we have of it.’ (pg.28)
Stavans is brilliant as he goes on to cite Don Quixote and Sancho ‘clones’. Holmes and Watson, Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller, Abbot and Constello, Laurel and Hardy, Batman and Robin et.al. And then another WOW, uttered by John Updike: “not only does Don Quixote need Sancho, but Sancho needs Don Quixote. The earthbound need the release and stimulation of the visionaries, high though the cost may be in bruises and embarrassments.”
But here is the question. Which one am I? Don Quixote or Sancho? And where the hell is my soul mate?”
This is so unusual as I have found my soul mate – it is Personal Driver. We talked on the phone yesterday and we discussed my recent finding. He said, that indeed. we were soulmates and that his wife did not mind. Honestly! We change roles through,. For example in maters of the Islamic faith, I am Sancho. Personal Driver is in his fifties and was raised in the faith, my studies are at the kindergarten level. I am sophisticated in other matters and have more graduate degrees than ex-husbands. What an entirely unlikely life I lead.
Then I found this You Tube link and looked it up. https://youtu.be/DJ4FGUeMRSoIt is the Police Academy graduation held in Dubai on January 15, 2020 presided over by the Crown Prince of Dubai (aka the Sultan, aka Fazza). I was in Dubai at the time but did not see him, he was clearly busy doing other things. The graduation ceremony is a stately affair, but so much has changed since them, it is unrecognizable. The virus has wrecked havoc with the economy and with the plans fo the future. The Ruler of Dubai was found my the High in London of abducting and kidnapping two of his daughters and the mistreatment of his sixth wife. Everything fell apart. I promised the folks at the Dubai Marriott that I would return and was planning to recuperate from my left knee replacement surgery at their hotel. The surgery was cancelled because of the virus and it is highly unlikely that I will ever return to Dubai for a number of reason.s
Now my life is rathe ordinary staying home in my modest apartment My next outing is on Friday, a doctor’s appointment and grocery shopping under the auspicious of Personal Driver. It is necessary to wear a face mask when going to a store but one can substitute a scar. The self attached to his blog is me in my scarf – looking rather fetching and quite Arabic.
