Over a month ago we spent our first night in London, we were travel-worn and thought it best to just get some Indian food and spend the evening in so that we would be ready for a week of sights. First of all, yes please Indian food, because wow can London make great Indian food. We heard rumors before we arrived, and just 2 dishes into the curry we had verification. So with full bellies, we were nestled into our AirBnB and Jake and I were trying to figure out a way to give our girls some context for this upcoming week. How could we give them a feel for the British people, the rich historical traditions and flavors they were about to see. Establishing a sense of place is essential when you travel, and many times film (good film) has a way of capturing a context and preparing your entry. It was apparent to us there was one, and only one, true British film that could capture this for our girls.
The brave and not-so-brave knights of the round table not only got us ready for London but foreshadowed our next steps. Once we arrived in Valencia, we learned that in fact the holy grail had already been found! And it had been here in the Cathedral of Valencia the whole time. The gist of the story is that Peter (remember he was the first pope) kept handing it down to pope after pope until sometime in the 14th century a Spanish pope was worried for its safety and sent it to Spain. Cause you know, Spain has always been free of conflict and war. My mom, Charlotte, and I immediately began our quest to encounter this relic of our Lord. The skeptics Jake, my dad, and Claire decided that they would rather do just about anything else with their day and their 7 euros. My dad told me to just buy him one from the gift shop.
As with all Spanish cathedrals, the entrance to the Grail is breathtaking and captures holiness that will prepare your mind for a “well who knows... maybe it’s for real”. For those whose education of the Grail comes from Indiana Jones, although everything around the chalice is immensely ornamental, the cup itself isn’t. It is a simple stone cup, it could be the cup of a carpenter, but still beautiful enough to be used for a special guest in a Jewish home, and I thought, “well who knows... maybe.” The cup has been dated back to the time and region that Christ shared his last supper with his disciples. And even though you might not have any idea what kind of science/magic is able to date stone, it reminds you yet again that “well who knows... maybe”. And then an old man told us we had to find a shrubbery before we could pass to see the Grail, and then we knew for sure that this is the bonafide real deal.
We are on a quest this year, not necessarily for THE grail, but perhaps for A grail. I am sure that from the outside our whole endeavor appears we are vacationing for a year, but in our lives here it feels pretty clear we are on a quest. Vacationing and Questing are different, I can best think of it in these terms:
1. Comfort. I think in general most people enjoy a higher standard of living from their home when they vacation. On a quest, comfort is somewhere pretty low on the priority list. And in fact, just a pleasant surprise when it comes. I’m a little cautious about full disclosure, cause I don’t want to sound like I am complaining, but let’s say the mice, fleas, and bed bugs have been a rather lower standard of living than we are used to. I talk a lot about the great food we have had, but we have also been hungry and thirsty with no real possibility of immediate satisfaction. I’ve shown beautiful places, but we have also been lost, separated, and robbed. We have had to deal with discomfort long enough that we are able to sit in the discomfort. Discovering that discomfort can prepare you for a pursuit.
2. Pursuit. We are searching and in pursuit of something that is true, and bigger than us. A great vacation is refreshing and makes you feel better about yourself. It gets you ready to come back to the life that you are living. There is NOTHING wrong with that, in fact, it’s glorious! A quest, however, reminds you that you are incomplete and that you’ve got some work to do, a lot of work to do. All four of us are here to learn, we are here to discover what we do not know and then do better/be better. We have to be active in that pursuit because we do not wish to return to the same life that we lived before our quest. We want to be a better artist, a better advocate for people with disabilities, we want to be better teachers, better students and better neighbors. We aren’t just on a pursuit, but a pursuit with a purpose.
3. Purpose. This hasn’t just been a quest for us, but a holy quest. We get better only when we know God better. He consistently shows Himself in His world, but only when we are observant enough to see. That was hard for us to do at home, it doesn’t mean He wasn’t there, but we were too comfortable to pursue Him. We have seen Him in the people that do not look like or talk like us because we need them. For the past three months, we are the minority, we are the outsider, and the other. We are dependent on a community that never signed up to take us in, and it is humbling. No longer do we get to pretend to be a god, in control of our fate trusting in our independence. We need God, and He shows up.
We aren’t done with our quest, in many ways we are just getting started. We are packing up to leave Spain, and we know He will be with us, as we cross the ocean to a tropical climate, one where the coconuts are grown instead of being flown in by swallows.
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