Here’s a picture of me and SB pretending to be Don Quixote and Sancho Panzer.

One of us might be slightly ‘Quixotic’. Mildly bonkers, occasionally seeing the world through the lens of romantic, idealistic fantasy. Whilst the other individual is a down to earth pragmatist. Very much keeping the bonkers one’s feet on the ground.

I’m not prepared to say which one is which.

A cool picture though.

‘Sanchification’ versus ‘Quixotization’?

I must admit to previously not knowing a huge amount about the book Don Quixote published in 1605 by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes.

Our wanderings along the Camino de Santiago have however piqued my interest in Don Quixote.

Sorry for mentioning the Camino de Santiago, again, I’m suffering from ‘reverse fight club syndrome’.

I won’t shut up about the Camino (according to my family and so called friends)…

Anyway, amongst the mountain of things written about Don Quixote is the idea that the two people take on each other’s traits after spending a lot of time together.

Sancho Panzer takes on some of Don Quixote’s traits where his practicality and ‘earthy wit’ drifts towards imagination and romantic rhetoric. For Quixote, it’s a drift towards reality from illusion.

This has go me thinking.

Is the same sort of thing going on with me and SB? Are we taking on each other’s traits from days of endless plodding together in the Spanish Sun?

Maybe.

But maybe it’s happened already. After almost 40 years of being married it’s probably inevitable.

And probably not a bad thing either in my case, I’ve changed for the better (I think).

If you sup with the devil, use a long spoon.

There is of course a negative side to this sort of thing. If you spend too much time in the ‘wrong’ sort of company, it can turn you into a ‘bad un’.

Way back in 2012 I wrote a post about how a dysfunctional organisation can turn a good person bad.

It was following a lecture I’d attended where all the evidence and research just backed up what we all know and our parents tell us, ‘be careful of the friends you keep’.

Obviously it’s a bit harder to do if your ‘friends’ are co-workers in the organisation that pays your wages.

The best advice I’ve heard on this is to have strong links outside of the organisation, so that you can keep reminding yourself of what ‘good looks like’, while you are looking for a new job.

And don’t get drawn into the ‘culture’. If you are ‘supping with the devil’ make sure you do have a long spoon..

Tilting at Windmills.

This is a lovely phrase I don’t hear often enough. Basically it means an activity that is pointless.

Don Quixote in the book is famously known for charging windmills on horseback with a lance (tilting). He imagines the windmills are four armed Giants he is fighting off in a ‘Knightly’ manner, full of Chivalry.

Of course, it is all imagined and utterly pointless.

There are no real enemies and Sancho Panzer sits back on his mule and observes with pragmatic stoicism.

You may have encountered some ‘tilting at windmills’ in your working or personal life?

I’m currently on the look out, just so I can use the phrase.

The Camino de Santiago teaches you so much (sorry, I’ve done it again).

Here’s a video clip of Don Quixote, tilting at windmill.

It illustrates the point perfectly.

There are some fairly tenuous links in this post, but I suppose it does prove I’m not an AI bot.

I can’t quite imagine a (semi) logical Large Language Model AI engine would have managed to have strung together such a random collection of thoughts.

Unless… it really is badly hallucinating or somehow it’s used my previous posts as a training database. If that was the case I reckon it’s drifted into proper Don Quixote territory, completely detached from reality.

So, What’s the PONT?

• Be careful of the friends you keep. Good advice from your Mam. Because if you spend a lot of time with someone, you might take on some of their traits. Like Sancho Panzer and Don Quixote or SB and me (probably a good thing in my case).
• Beware of taking on the traits of those around you in the workplace. Especially if it’s not such a great place. Keep ‘anchored’ to things outside work, and ‘if you sup with the devil’, use a long spoon.
• If there’s a chance, please try to introduce the phrase ‘tilting at windmills’ into office speak. There will be opportunities, I’m sure of it.
• Adios.