![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2012\/11\/picasso-quixote.jpg\" "\\"picasso")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe last two song and sentiment posts have touched on problems of uncertainty. How does Floyd derive comfort from his series of questions about heaven<\/a>? Why does being unblinded leave Nurse Fay Apple more uncertain<\/a> that she was in ignorance? The last song I want to discuss is from Man of La Mancha<\/em><\/a>. In \u201cWhat Does He Want of Me\u201d Aldonza\u2019s song follows the same structure as Floyd\u2019s\u2013a litany of questions\u2013but instead of finding comfort, she seems to be as discomfited as Nurse Fay Apple. You can listen to the song below (with slightly different lyrics than the revival version I\u2019m quoting).<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=spRnVJ8MDoA<\/a>\n As staged in the revival, Aldonza questions Sancho Panza, the squire of the Mad Don Quixote, about his master\u2019s ways. [This is different than in the audio above, where the song is addressed to Quixote. \u00a0I prefer the revival\u2019s relyricization, because Aldonza cannot appeal to Quixote for explanation, but she might ask Sancho to explain interpret the man he follows]. \u00a0Quixote is a holy fool, jarringly out of step with the world. In the musical, his inability to find a place in this Spain is not because of some flaw in himself; it is a rebuke to the world that cannot accommodate his abandonment of self.<\/p>\n Why does he do the things he does? It\u2019s not hard to translate Aldonza\u2019s questions to the experience of the followers of Jesus.\u00a0Think of the man who walks away after Jesus asks him\u00a0to sell all he has and give it to the poor<\/a>. Or the disciples who flee\u00a0after Jesus reveals the hard teaching of the Eucharist<\/a>. \u00a0They, too , must have thought:<\/p>\n No one can be what he wants me to be, But why are Quixote\u2019s unspoken demands frightening to Aldonza. \u00a0If he asked for the plainly impossible (\u201cAldonza, sprout wings and fly\u201d) or obviously mistook her (confusing her with the very distinct Sancho, not the ideal of Dulcinea), he would be ridiculous, but there would be no threat to Aldonza. \u00a0Dulcinea is just close enough to possible that a little seed of fear sprouts in Aldonza that she\u00a0might<\/em> be called to be what Quixote asks.<\/p>\n Aldonza doesn\u2019t just ask what to do about Quixote, which would leave her in the comfortable, spectator position of his relatives. \u00a0By asking \u201cWhat does he want of me?\u201d she acknowledges a relationship between them. \u00a0And she questions Sancho urgently about what, exactly Quixote wants from her, because sooner or later, she\u2019s going to have to decide whether to deny it to him.<\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t he know Why does he want the things he wants? Aldonza is stuck on the horns of Lewis\u2019s Trilemma<\/a>: Lunatic, Liar, or Lord. \u00a0If Quixote\u2019s claim can\u2019t be laughed off, then someone must have the authority to ask Aldonza to be more than she is. \u00a0But since Quixote is just a man, Aldonza can\u2019t answer his demand with Augustine\u2019s prayer, \u201cGive what you command, and command what you will.\u201d \u00a0Quixote has unblinded her but doesn\u2019t have to power to lead her, so Aldonza despairs in the gulf between\u00a0ought<\/em> and\u00a0is<\/em>.<\/p>\n But, for a Christian, there\u2019s no begging off being what He wants you to be, since we\u2019re given a more trustworthy guide than Quixote. \u00a0But the demands he makes have a tendency to sound just as foolish<\/a>. \u00a0I\u2019ve said before I tend to like hymns with a martial tone (especially \u201cGod Whose Purpose is to Kindle<\/a>\u201c), but I think the one that\u2019s most likely to make your blood run cold is \u201cThe Summons<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name? The horror of that let!<\/em><\/p>\n Christ calls us Dulcinea already, and rebukes us for clinging to \u2018Aldonza\u2019 in our fear. \u00a0 We\u2019ve already been offered the power to be what we ought to be, but, moment by moment, we decline to exercise it or acknowledge it. \u00a0We couldn\u2019t possibly be so beautiful or so strong. \u00a0Better to stay small on the sidelines than acknowledge every moment we\u2019ve spent shirking til this point. \u00a0The first \u2018Amen\u2019 is an acknowledgement that we hadn\u2019t said it until now.<\/p>\n But better to bite the bullet and admit that I have greatly sinned, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, than to deny culpability by denying that I can and should be better.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n T-1 day.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last two song and sentiment posts have touched on problems of uncertainty. How does Floyd derive comfort from his series of questions about heaven? Why does being unblinded leave Nurse Fay Apple more uncertain that she was in ignorance? The last song I want to discuss is from Man of La Mancha. In \u201cWhat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":5891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-5890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversion-2","tag-at-the-theatre"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWhy does he do these things?
\nWhy does he march
\nThrough that dream that he\u2019s in,
\nCovered with glory and rusty old tin?
\nWhy does he live in a world that can\u2019t be,
\nAnd what does he want of me\u2026
\nWhat does he want of me?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nOh, what does he want of me\u2026
\nWhat does he want of me?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nHe\u2019ll be laughed at wherever he\u2019ll go?
\nAnd why I\u2019m not laughing myself\u2026
\nI don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\nWhy does he want these things?
\nWhy does he batter at walls that won\u2019t break?
\nWhy does he give when it\u2019s natural to take?
\nWhere does he see all the good he can see,
\nAnd what does he want of me?
\nWhat does he want of me?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nWill you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
\nWill you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
\nand admit to what I mean in you and you in me?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n