When you read Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, you start to feel like the book takes over your life and gets into your head, just like all of the chivalric fantasies that drive the titular character mad. Now I'm seeing Quixote in everything and everywhere and I just can't escape him. Plus, I still have a paper to write about the book. It sounds like I'm complaining, but I really did enjoy it. It's a singular work that has inspired so many authors over the centuries since the publication of Don Quixote Part Two in 1615.

I'll never forget you, Big Red

Cervantes had a lot to say about how stories are written and shared, as well as the effect they have on us, but he also had a few things to tell us about the human condition. One lesson in particular has affected me personally, and it's something everyone should take to heart: we have a tendency of allowing our personal desires to cloud our perceptions of reality. That tendency is at the center of all of the (mis)adventures of Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza. He wants to believe the world adheres to the rules of chivalric novels, so he sees inns as castles, prostitutes as noble ladies, and windmills as giants in part one. On a side note, it's interesting that Don Quixote tilting at windmills is the image everyone associates with the book when this particular episode barely even lasts two pages out of the nearly 1000 total pages.

Sancho wants to believe Quixote can make him the governor of an "insula", never mind the fact Sancho has no idea how to rule or even really understand what an insula is. He has his doubts, but chooses to suspend his disbelief for most of the book, until he finally gets the chance to play governor. I get it. I've had my share of desires that don't match with reality. I want to be loved (who doesn't?), but sometimes I end up seeking it from the wrong people or see it where it doesn't exist and maybe can't exist. I've had to learn oftentimes friendship is enough, even if it's not exactly what I (think I) want. I want to believe I'm better, smarter, nicer, and more charming than the next guy, but sometimes I leave something to be desired (again, who doesn't?). But, perfection would come with a lot more responsibility than I care to deal with. In other words, when life disappoints you by not living up to your self-deceptive fantasies, just lower your expectations to realistic levels. Sancho would have a pile of proverbs to further accentuate my point, and some of them would actually be applicable, but this is 2016, so a meme will do the trick: