I have long written about my own quests for what should have been mundane items, of the sort that people shop for every day yet because of supply chain shortages end up being a serious chore to find. It is not my intention to copy what has been a longstanding area of interest to this blog, but I feel it is worth talking about, because these sorts of issues are by no means unique to me. Yesterday afternoon, when I landed at Portland International Airport, I was picked up by a close friend of mine, who commented briefly that he was on his way to an O’Reilly’s store on Powell and 82nd in order to find a water pump for the car of one of his sons. We arrived there and I waited in the truck while he successfully shopped. When he got back he told me that the computer for the auto parts chain had said that there was a timing belt at a nearby location, so with my encouragement we went off to that location, found the parking lot filled up with various fleet vehicles, and he went to get the timing belt, after which we were able to go back to his place, where my own vehicle was parked.

As I am by no means a mechanically inclined person, the quest for car parts has seldom been my own. Given both the robust nature of databases of car parts shops and the supply chain issues that keep such very narrowly specific supplies limited across an area as large as the Portland metropolitan area, which numbers around 2.5 million people or so across several counties in two states, it can take a lot of driving in order to obtain the specific parts that someone needs in order to fix a vehicle. These are not my own problems, but they are problems I understand, and sometimes I end up being a side character or minor character in the quest of others’ existences. And it is that subject that I would like to reflect upon today, as I find it is equally important to reflect upon the quests of others that one plays a role in as one’s own quests that tend to take up more of one’s own time thinking about.

When we are dealing with the quests of others’ existences, and not our own, there are in general two sorts of roles that we can play. One of these roles is a supporting role. We may perhaps be a keeper of the goods that others quest for. In my job, for example, I have long been lord of the data, and others have come to me seeking data that they needed on their own quests, which I have often found myself examining for them and providing for them accordingly. Yesterday I was an encouraging person in helping someone engage in the tedious process of going from one store to another looking for enough car parts to finish solving error codes for an engine light for a car without trying to spend too much money doing so. If we are extremely fortunate, we may serve as the teacher and guide and mentor to those whose quests involve a great deal of learning and the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom in order to successfully tackle massive quests that can change the course of an entire life.

Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, there are also occasions where we may serve as the blocking characters that throw a monkey wrench into the quests of others’ existences. For those questing for a house free of clutter, our tendency to accumulate books or computer parts may be a hindrance to their desire to simplify their house and keep it clean. For those seeking to have as drama free a life as possible, we may present difficulties in communication that make their lives more stressful and that even may be the subject of various visits with a therapist. Sometimes we may stubbornly decide to thwart someone’s wishes rather than to grant them, while at other times our role as a blocking or hindering character to the quests that others are undertaking is one that is unconsciously chosen or not of our own wishes or desires. We may wish others well, or even wish to help them, but find ourselves so clumsy and awkward that we cannot help but be in their way. Let us hope that when this happens we may be treated graciously, and that we may learn to be gracious to those who are unwitting foils and roadblocks in the quests of our own existence. We may not always be able to choose the roles that we have in life, but we can choose to deal with them as graciously as possible.