One of my favorite songs is "The Impossible Dream". See the lyrics which I memorized when I was in high school as our YDT (Youth Development Training) teacher required us to do.
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause.
And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
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.
When I was in college I found more meaning in the lyrics. This song was the favorite of then Senator Ninoy Aquino who was killed in the tarmac of Manila International Airport. The quest was not over when he died.
I have a quest but I don't want to die that my quest is still a quest. Sometimes I am hopeless and tired as the journey is long and arduous. The more I chase for it, the more it hides. But I never stop figuring out which way to go. I have experienced betrayals, isolation, rejections, and humiliation but I just embraced all. At first there was pain, then there was numbness, then there was nothing. And yes when I ignored them, the doers and actions did not have power over me.
Most people look at others based on what money can buy. They are like robots -- programmed. Wake up in the morning, work, eat, do home routines, sleep. Same, day after day. The important thing is they survive and they can buy what they want.
Sometimes I 'envy' them because they don't get sleepless with raging ideas wanting to find their realities. With my eyes closed or open, I have this aerial view like an eagle scanning everything below -- forest, seas, building roof, clouds, all -- in search of something. That something -- where and how to find? But if you have the aerial view, you see the roads, where they connect, where they lead to. You see if the bridge is broken or if it's a dead end. The question is how to get there at desired destination with all the barriers along the way.
It takes a solid strong determination to conquer the odds and defeat the monster in us in our quest for something.
In the United Arab Emirates, 'people of determination' signs awaken one's spirit. UAE Vice President and Dubai Ruler His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched the term "people of determination", as a part of the national strategy to empower people with disabilities, in April 2017.
"Disability, is in fact, the inability to make the progress and achievements," Siobhan Downes wrote in WhatsOn.ae.
In my deeper understanding of it, disabled people are not only those who lost their arms, or feet, or whatever part of their bodies -- but also those who have complete warm bodies but cannot move forward to fully achieve what they want in life for some reasons.
There are many tall challenges and difficult situations as we go on with life. Confronted with such situations, we can find a defining moment that forms the shape of our quest. If there is a war, we have a quest for peace. If one of the family members is lost, we have a quest for his comeback. If we are heavily indebted, we have a quest for financial freedom. If we are trapped somewhere, we have a quest to return home. If we feel alone and sad, we have a quest for company and joy.
Cambridge Dictionary defines 'quest' as 'a long search for something that is difficult to find, or an attempt to achieve something difficult'.
Prince Harry created an international adaptive multi-sport event called Invictus Games. Wounded, injured or sick armed services personnel and their associated veterans can take in sports games including wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball and indoor rowing. It was at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (London, United Kingdom) that the first Invictus Games took place in March 2014. It would be difficult for them to participate in the games, let alone win them -- but they did. It took time to finetune their minds and prepare their bodies -- and what a quest!
As for me, more than a decade of a quest for something is sometimes unthinkable. Others misunderstand me but I don't live by their wrong opinions on what I am, who I am, what I do, what I plan to do and what I want to achieve in my life. I don't care at all. I am not measured by how others look at me, but by what the power in me can do for my spirit to rise, find that 'star' and achieve that 'something difficult'.
One evening, I bought some painting materials. My friend asked me why I would waste time painting and who would buy my artworks. I explained to her a bit about my passion but when I sensed that we were on different pages, I stopped explaining things.
My quest when I do painting? A whole new world. The "If" world, when 'all stars go out'. Dominance on canvas. Freedom of the brushes to move and delight to see how colors blend.
Vincent van Gogh's words echoed in my mind, "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." I did paint. One day my artworks will reach the hands of my target arts enthusiasts. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
What is your quest story? Are you a determined soul? No chance nor fate can stop a person of determination.
Sometimes life is a like a hell. We 'march to that hell for a heavenly cause' --
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause.
-- like a mother who can run through the ring of fire to save her child, so to speak. The world may be full of hell, but it is also full of heaven.
Can you be with me? Let's passionately master the obstacle game, racing from where we are now to what we can become, with an unalterable determination.
Please tell me your quest story.
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Photo credits: Pixabay
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