Google resources define "Quest" as: A long or arduous search for something.
Have you ever been involved in a quest? Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall book series, wisely says: "You will find joy, frustration and sorrow in your quest."
Several years ago, as she studied Don Quixote, one of my teenage daughters was given a school assignment to write about a real-life quest. She asked me if I knew anyone who had ever been on a quest. My reply? “A Quest! Yes! I have been on a quest!” I proceeded to dictate my story, and she completed her assignment. I’m pretty sure she got an excellent grade on the assignment, because it was an excellent story.
Let me tell you the story about my quest, my quest for food. But not just any food….
My quest began when my kids were elementary aged. As a working parent, with 4 kids, I usually stuck to the tried and true when it came to feeding my family. I figured out what foods they would eat, and I kept the pantry and the frig stocked with said foods. Occasionally, I would branch out to introduce new items, but we had staple foods which we consistently ate. At that time, we often ate bagels with cream cheese for breakfast. In my family, the favorite cream cheese spread, by far, was blueberry cream cheese. The kids would often turn up their noses at plain cream cheese, or other flavored varieties. Life carried on at a steady pace, until one day, when shopping at my local Publix grocery store, I could not find blueberry cream cheese. It had always been there before, right there on the shelf, but there was none. Figuring that they had sold out, I didn’t get alarmed, but I resolved to remember to look for it next time. For several weeks in a row, I checked for the blueberry cream cheese, but it was never there. When I saw a grocery worker stocking the dairy case, I asked him about it. He went to check, then came back, and to my horror, said that they had stopped carrying the blueberry flavor.
I realized that I had to put a plan into action. Let me stop here and say that online ordering was not a thing at this moment in time. Amazon did not exist, and stores did not have an online presence. The only way to buy a food product was to walk into a store and physically take it from the shelf. When the blueberry cream cheese disappeared from my grocery store, I was not going to accept the fact that it was unavailable, so my quest began. Over the next few weeks, I stopped in multiple grocery stores as I conducted my everyday business around town. Each time, I checked the dairy case. Eventually, I was excited to find blueberry cream cheese in the Kroger grocery store nearby, and I immediately purchased several tubs. Whew! We can eat bagels again!
Imagine my dismay, after several months, when blueberry cream cheese disappeared from the Kroger shelf. What’s happening? Who’s messing with the cream cheese? What is going on here? I began my search again. In town, out of town, everywhere I went, if there was a grocery store, I checked for blueberry cream cheese, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I mentioned my quest to a friend one day, and she said that she had bought some at the Ingles grocery store in the next town over. Ingles! Of course! For weeks, I didn’t exactly go out of my way, but when I found myself in that general direction, I always stopped at Ingles and bought a bunch of blueberry cream cheese. Until…....you guessed it, Ingles stopped carrying it, too. The search continued.
Now, I didn’t try to figure out why blueberry cream cheese was being cancelled. Information was not at my fingertips the way it is nowadays. Nobody was talking about the blueberry cream cheese shortage. I still don’t know why it happened. Perhaps it was a manufacturing issue. Perhaps it was a health scare. Perhaps it was lagging sales. Perhaps it was a blueberry shortage. I don’t know. All I knew then was that we wanted our blueberry cream cheese and we wanted it now! And the powers-that-be were keeping us from getting it. It was a very bizarre situation.
One day, I sat in my preschool classroom, eating lunch with my preschool kids. There was one particularly quiet girl who always looked like she wanted to disappear into the floor. She never spoke in class, didn't answer questions, and rarely interacted with kids or teachers. She always looked uncomfortable, and we tried not to increase her discomfort. I’ll call her Angie. On this particular day, she sat at the table near me and carefully unwrapped the lunch her mother had prepared. I glanced her way, then suddenly realized that she had just unwrapped a bagel which was smeared with blueberry cream cheese. My excitement exploded as I nearly jumped out of my chair, “ANGIE! YOU'VE GOT BLUEBERRY CREAM CHEESE!!! I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR IT EVERYWHERE!!!” Her wide-eyed reaction reminded me to settle down. More calmly, I said, “Do you know where your mom bought the blueberry cream cheese???” She didn’t respond, but hunkered down over her food. I didn’t expect her to respond. But, my hope was renewed. The blueberry cream cheese was somewhere out there, somewhere nearby. But, where? Try as I might, I could not find it.
A month or more later, I sat at lunch in my preschool class and saw the food that Angie had just unwrapped--another bagel smeared with blueberry cream cheese. I raised my eyebrows excitedly and caught my breath as I looked at her. She didn’t pick up the bagel to eat, but sat still, staring at it. After a few minutes passed, I gently said, “Oh, Angie, I see that you’ve got another bagel with blueberry cream cheese. That looks good. Aren’t you going to eat it?” Then, very quietly, staring at the table, she whispered, “My mom said she bought it at Super Walmart.” Instead of screaming “WOO-HOO!!!”, like I wanted to do, I braced myself and matter-of-factly said, “Thank you for asking her, I’ll go look for it there.” After school, I drove straight to Super Walmart, and bought up the whole lot. I was so impressed that my little student, while seemingly disengaged with class, took my question home to her mom, got the answer, and was prepared to help me in my quest (with just a little prodding), even though a significant amount of time had passed. I saw her in a new light, and I was happy that I had scooped her up into my quest.
My family sat around with bellies full of blueberry cream cheese bagels for a while. At some point, we lost interest and started eating other things. Recently, I saw blueberry cream cheese make a comeback at my regular Publix store. I’ll probably buy it one day for a nostalgic throwback.
When I think about my quest, I realize that it was fueled by our desire to eat a food that we liked. But, I also realize that my quest was sustained by my outrage that the cream cheese should be there, and I would do whatever I needed to do to find it. I did not want the system to beat me, I wanted to beat the system. Take away my cream cheese? I’ll show you—I’ll find it somewhere! Sure, I wanted the blueberry cream cheese, because my family liked to eat it, but, at some point, I just wanted to win. I wanted to complete the quest successfully. That’s the point of a quest, right? I’m sure I have launched other mini-quests from time to time, but, blueberry cream cheese is the one quest that stands out for me. It lasted months, maybe even a year. The goal was always the same – find the cheese. At times, I thought I had completed it, but, the cheese would be cruelly snatched from my hands time and time again.
Are there any lessons to learn? Yes, probably. Something about motivations for searching, how to react to disappointments, perseverance, striving for goals, reevaluating importance, knowing when to give up. Those are worthy messages to contemplate. For me, the thing that stands out most about my quest for blueberry cream cheese, was my little friend Angie. I think those might have been the only words she spoke to me the whole year of school. I asked her for help, and she helped me. I think that’s what made my quest worthwhile; the fact that she helped me actually helped her a little bit. I brought my own bagel with blueberry cream cheese to school one day, showed it to her and thanked her for her help. She smiled, then returned to her downward gaze. One step at a time, baby steps.
In one of my favorite movies Monty Python and The Holy Grail, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table search high and low for the Holy Grail. They encounter ridiculous obstacles and unbelievable challenges filled with hilarity and mayhem. (Spoiler Alert->) In the most anti-climactic ending, they find the Holy Grail just within their grasp when 20th century police arrive to arrest them for their misdeeds. The joke at the end of the movie is that it was all for naught, the quest ended, with nothing accomplished.
I think a quest has value, even if nothing is accomplished, no matter the results. Whether it is a quest for knowledge, or success, or excellence, or enlightenment, or cream cheese, or anything else, the end goal merely sets the direction of the quest. You set your own pace and create the experiences along the way. For me, the best part of my quest was connecting with my shy, reserved little student. Many years later, she probably doesn’t even remember it. But, for me, the quest became less about grabbing the cream cheese we craved, and more about including someone else on my journey. It was one of my favorite classroom connections ever.
How about you? Is there a quest looming in your future? Are you ready for the adventure? Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines….Let the quest begin!