Making People Brand-New

[Quixote1818]

I love this devotion and just wanted to share. It kind of encompasses the Democratic philosophy of looking for the potential in all people.



Making People Brand-New

by Jim Burns

One of my favorite musicals is Man of La Mancha. In this story you meet a loony Spanish gentleman, Don Quixote, who thinks he is an honored knight, when in fact he is nothing of the sort. In this musical Don Quixote meets a lowly prostitute, Aldonza. He doesn't know she is a prostitute; he thinks she is an elegant Spanish lady, a queen. Yet Don Quixote slowly changes the entire self-concept of this prostitute by constantly, unconditionally affirming her. What is amazing about the story is, when she begins to see herself differently, she begins to act differently. He even gives her a new name, Dulcinea, so that she will ever be reminded of her new identity and her potential. She became a brand-new person.

Who is the Aldonza in your life? Who can you offer positive encouragement to? Who can you offer a belief in even when they don't believe in themselves? In order to affirm a person's potential, you may have to look at them with the eye of faith and treat them in terms of their potential, not their behavior.

Goethe, a famous philosopher once put this way:

"Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is, treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be."

Again I ask, who is the Aldonza in your life who can become a Dulcinea? Today is the day to believe in them and give them the gift of affirmation.


I can't find the link where I got this, but it's posted on my website: www.impossibledreamspub.com

[WCGreen]

1. Just went to see tat Man of La Mancha with a dear friend a couple

of weeks ago...

She is my Dulcinea...

I love that musical and the traveling troops was very good...