Triades

There is the novel of Don Quijote de la Mancha that we are reading to make a musical and some short stories for the children, as the two protagonists lead their adventures. Don Quijote and Sancho Panza are a very interesting couple, one almost opposite to the other in qualities, and together they form a wonderful duet for the development of the stories.

Don Quijote, extreme idealist, figure thin and tall consummed by the ideals of pure love and chavalry; Sancho Panza, rather generous in figure as his name indicates ( Panza means belly in Spanish), and character thrown over the natural senses of the world. Both are extremes in themselves that we might carry at some point, the overindulgence of Sancho Panza brings a level of lullness and stupidity, whereas the idealist in extreme leads to madness and disconnection from the world. But both put together may bring a good deal of goodness, as the common sense balances the idealism and vice-versa.

We find the same also out of ourselves, when we find among friends and relationships, a natural coincidence in personalitites. I have seen in my life the friends that I have become closer to, they ressemble each other. because I have lived in different places, new friends have entered my life, but oddly enough, they would always have some similaritty to the first friends. So in this way we could say we always find our Sancho Panza or our Don Quijote, wherever we go.

Now when we marry, we are bound to our spouse, and this relationship comes to be a priority. Together with God they form a sacred triade not to be shaken. When a friendship other than our spouse has come too close to the triade, the dangers are many. I have seen this in my life too, as our nature tends to look for scapegoats and third persons to alleviate the hardships of life, I have always said that a friend by your side is a blessing, it makes suffering cut in half. But, it is important that this relationship with friends allows the increase for veneration of your husband, otherwise is a blessing in disguise and brings havoc.

St. Teresa of Avila warned us of this occurrence too, she said that a relationship with a fellow nun or novitiate should be increasing your own fervor of God, when that relationship increases the feelings of kindred  to each other but not of God, then it would be safe to stop. How more this could apply then to our spouses! the more a friendhip helps us kindle the love for our spouse, the better.

In this I observe too the problems of discipline among children. When my disposition is closely bounded to my husband, and my obedience prompt and loving, the children obey in a meekly way, but when I step out of this blissful marriage relationship, and start thinking like the world, in terms of myself and of my rights, then I am lost in battles with the children, disobedience and stubbornness. Sometimes the shift is rather subtle too, and the effects catch me by surprise!

Last Sunday at the Bible study a friend commented about the Amish:" Maybe the wifes are willingly submitting themselves to the bondage of the husbands for this very reason, for the example to their own children, to know how a society functions under the authority of God."