Quixote Perspective

It seems to me that ‘Wordle’ is a puzzle for our times. The future seems to have become a puzzle without clues. What has happened in the past is no longer a good predictor of what will happen in the future. How many times have we heard the word “unprecedented” in the past couple of years? Used not just of the pandemic, which seems to throw up another “unprecedented” challenge every time we seem to be emerging into the so-called “new normal” but also in regard to floods, wildfires and “unprecedented” government expenditure in response to crisis after crisis.

We live in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times. Are we condemned to just make wild guesses about how to move into the future or are there still some guideposts and certainties for us to cling to? Back to ‘Wordle’. While the puzzle has ‘no clues’, we know that all valid words have a structure and follow certain rules and players enter the game knowing that they will usually fail several times. In this game, both successes and failures are valuable. It is often as important to know what doesn’t work as to know what does. Players often choose to start with a word that includes several vowels because they know that at least one of the five vowels, or a y, will be included in the mystery word. Feedback provided after each attempt is important. Finding that you have chosen the  right letter but put it in the wrong place or that a letter you chose is not in the mystery word is also a help. It gives a sense of progress.

The game also requires players to pause, to concentrate, to remove distractions, to be present. Players share their success and failures with others, creating a sense of community, and if you exhaust all six guesses today, you know there will be a new game tomorrow!

As we move into an unknown future, these approaches are valuable for the journey of life. While the future is unknown, as Christians, we believe that we do not travel alone. God goes with us and we are in the company of fellow believers. We also believe that love, unconditional love, is the core quality of the universe. Whatever the problem. Whatever the unknown unknowns. We approach the future embraced by the love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Cor 13:7)

The story begins with the magi taking guidance from the stars. Navigation in ancient times mainly occurred by observing stars and constellations. Travellers needed to know the night sky well. They had to trust the path through darkness and unknowing.

This is a recording of the speech I gave at the Australia Day Celebration Breakfast at Murchison in Northern Victoria.

Traditionally, it’s distinguished Australians that are invited to present their reflections on our national identity and share their vision for the future. This time it was the turn of someone much less distinguished, but I am grateful for the opportunity to share something of my story and the story of the Shiraz Republic and some of the lessons I’ve learnt along the way.

Murchison is part of my home turf. For the past 9 years I have been the minister there at the Uniting Church

We were created as social beings.  In the story of human creation in Genesis, we read, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” (Gen 2:18) Life is enriched when we travel with people who share our principles, values, and passions. Such people provide us with a sense of belonging.

The Magi were undertaking a long and difficult journey with many barriers and difficulties to overcome. Along their way, they would have wondered whether they had read and interpreted the signs they had observed correctly.

Travelling with good company shares burdens, deepens joy, halves the sorrows and increases the opportunities for personal growth.

Being part of a trusted community gives us the social nourishment that we need to survive and thrive in a complex world.

Belonging to a group of people with shared values and purpose has several benefits. I am going to share three of them.

Shared Journey

You never walk alone. You have people around you to share your burden and help you carry the load that your dream represents. You live comforted by the fact that you have people to fight life’s battles with you. It is empowering.

Good times are shared

As well as burdens, it is wonderful to have people to share your triumphs with and to celebrate milestones in your journey. This companionship adds to your joy and magnifies the significance of every accomplishment. These companions cheer you on as you advance and go on to pursue higher goals.

Access to more resources

You don’t need to have all the resources for your dreams. You can find some of them from your community. Someone in my trusted community will have something that I need, just as  I have something that they need.

Questions:

• Who are the people in your trusted community who you are travelling with?
• How can you deepen your relationships with them this year?

Before we take down the Christmas lights, sweep up the pine needles, settle into the summer of cricket, tennis and AFLW, the church gives us one more Christmas blast: the feast of Epiphany.

‘Epiphany’ means “revealing or manifestation.” The feast of Epiphany celebrates God being manifested to the world through Jesus.

Every year this feast features a story of pilgrims on a journey, and we meet the Magi, who, being Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, are outsiders. They are travelling in search of the king. The key thing for us about the story of the magi visiting Jesus is that it is a story about God coming to us, God walking with us, God transforming us.

The Gospel text for the Feast of Epiphany offers us a powerful invitation as we enter a New Year and cross another threshold of time.

Despite popular culture’s spin, the three wise men who visited Jesus in the manger were not kings. The word, ‘magi’, used to describe them, is usually understood as astrologers and/or astronomers, denoting the title of ‘Wise Men’.

It is also likely that there were more than three of them. The number ‘three’ is derived from the fact that the Gospel of Matthew states three gifts were given to Jesus.

They arrived from the East, stopping off at Herod’s palace in Jerusalem to seek directions. They were then sent to Bethlehem to praise the newborn king with Herod’s hope that they would return to him with information. (This incidentally is the last time in recorded history that a group of men stopped somewhere to ask directions.)

I’m Brian Spencer, currently I am a vine grower and winemaker at the Shiraz Republic, part-owner of the Cornella Brewery, a farmer, a business consultant and a Uniting Church minister. I spread myself across my business interests, four small rural congregations, and providing consultancy services in education, resource development and innovation to Uniting Church congregations across the north-east of Victoria. I am also embedded in my local community of Colbinabbin, in regional Victoria, Australia. A part owner of the community owned Colbinabbin General Store, a member of the Colbinabbin-Cornella pipeline committee, a neighbor who borrows more than he lends, and a frequenter of the local pubs. Over the course of my life I’ve worked in numerous jobs, had seven career changes, I’ve been through a painful divorce, lost myself, been found, stopped caring what people think of me, found a community that loves me, created a life I am proud of and remain a passionate believer in the gospel of the second chance.

I first read Don Quixote as a teenager. My mate Tom and I travelled for a couple of hours each day on the bus from Yarra Glen to Mooroolbark Tech School. Don Quixote is the lead character in the novel by Miguel de Cervantes, first published in 1605. Physically it was a weird little book. With its soft leather cover, thin rice paper pages and fantastical storyline, it entranced us. It had probably been donated to the under-funded school library and I think we were the only students to have borrowed it.

Don Quixote has selective vision of the real world. Windmills are armed giants, sheep are attacking armies, and slaves are oppressed gentlemen. Quixote is an idealist seeing things through rose-colored glasses at times. He fights impossible battles while the rest of the world says it can’t be done and mocks him for trying. It is ironic that a crazy man is showing humanity the “right way” to live. This character has survived the centuries demonstrating his universal appeal to all. Don Quixote is something of a Jesus figure, who saw meaning and purpose beyond the surface but endured mockery and humiliation from the crowd.

I confess to being crazy. I have joined in too many Quixotic adventures throughout my life. This “fight for the right without question”, having moments of clarity in a sea of confusion and a belief in the transformative power of a crazy vision is what the essence of the Quixote Perspective.

The most important things are not things at all.

I believe that the most important things in the world are not things. What’s more I believe that in our hearts we all know this to be true. When someone gets sick, when someone dies, when a baby is born, when we fall in love we all know that it is this non-material world that matters.

The daily news will endlessly fill our heads with the treachery of the human condition. Advertisers will continually try to seduce us into believing that owning this or that product will make us happy. But how do we feed the non-material or spiritual side of our lives. Through these columns I’ve tried to present a way of looking at the ordinary things of life and having them enriched by interpreting them through the lens of faith. For me that means following Jesus. As unfashionable as that can sound in our post-modern, material world I remain fascinated and challenged by the life and teaching of Jesus.

Meanwhile, I hope there are days when your coffee awakens you to the unseen, days when a sunset takes your breath away, days when the kindness of a stranger feels like the hand of God, and days when your spirit rises to discover possibilities beyond your imagination.

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
-- Marcus Aurelius

I first read Don Quixote as a teenager. My mate Tom and I travelled for a couple of hours each day on the bus from Yarra Glen to Mooroolbark Tech School. Don Quixote is the lead character in the novel by Miguel de Cervantes, first published in 1605. Physically it was a weird little book. With its soft leather cover, thin rice paper pages and fantastical storyline, it entranced us. It had probably been donated to the under-funded school library and I think we were the only students to have borrowed it.

In the “real world” of La Mancha, Spain, Don Quixote is known as Alonso Quijano, a thin country gentleman, familiar to all as kind and friendly. He lives with his daughter and two servants. As a gentleman, he spends time studying medieval romance stories, full of knights, chivalry, castles, and jousts. This all goes to his head to the point where he goes ”crazy” and actually starts outfitting himself as a knight. He believes that he has been called to change the world and right all wrongs.

As the story unfolds, everything is not as it seems: the innkeeper becomes a duke of a castle who dubs Don Quixote officially as “knight,” and a peasant girl at the inn becomes the princess and lady love for our knight errant. Don Quixote then goes out to fight his foes, both real and imagined in the name of his ladylove who stands for purity and perfection.

Don Quixote has selective vision of the real world. Windmills are armed giants, sheep are attacking armies, and slaves are oppressed gentlemen. Quixote is an idealist seeing things through rose-colored glasses at times. He fights impossible battles while the rest of the world says it can’t be done and mocks him for trying. It is ironic that a crazy man is showing humanity the “right way” to live. This character has survived the centuries demonstrating his universal appeal to all. Don Quixote is something of a Jesus figure, who saw meaning and purpose beyond the surface but endured mockery and humiliation from the crowd.

This “fight for the right without question”, having moments of clarity in a sea of confusion and a belief in the transformative power of a crazy vision is what the essence of the Quixote Perspective.

Through a combination of prior planning and neglect I’ve discovered that I have fish in my dam. Not just fish but many, sizable Silver Perch.

It must have been about 4 years ago I bought a bag of 100 fingerlings at the Epsom Field Days. I released them into the irrigation dam at the back of my house and promptly forgot about them. I did look for them in the first few weeks after their release, but there was too much water and too few, too small fish. I assumed that they had either died or had become food for the numerous water birds that paddle around the dam or dive in from the overhanging branches of the large eucalypt on the bank.

I’d like to claim that it was patience that let me stop constantly checking and fretting about the fate of my fingerlings, but the truth is I moved on to other things and they were forgotten until a friend who was installing a solar pump and working near the dam asked me, “Do you have fish in that dam?” as he had heard some irregular splashing, which to his more informed ear sounded like fish breaching the surface.

This aroused my curiosity and I decided to look more closely.

Henry Thoreau wrote "Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after."