It is as God, himself said, “it is not good for man to be alone.”
The second need for a knight is a woman to love, or sometimes literature will refer to this person as the woman of his interest. Young men, think back, even before you were significantly connected to a particular woman, an adolescence, a spark began to fire in your mind. Suddenly, you looked at yourself and said. “Wow, do I really dress like this?” You decided to make efforts to put aside the image of a boy for that of a man. This new image that you took on was one shaped by a desire to attract the attention of a woman, whether a general woman, or more often a specific woman.
Left to our own devices, I fear many men would end up as the most brutal of cavemen, dressed in fur and leather, chewing the leg off of some animal cooked over a spit.
Women have a civilizing power over men. Recently, I was reading a friend’s post on Facebook and had to laugh. He was pretending he did not marry and what would have happened for him.
Marvel Comics Presents What if Scott never married Wendy....We join our Thirty-nine year old hero in his apartment...er...bedroom in his mothers house as he asks to borrow her car so he can go to the comic book store and spend some of the money he earned as assistant to the shift manager at Taco Bell............................
I doubt I would have fared better.
Back in the days of lore, when men trained to become a knight, young squires were training in a manor house where there were always many available young ladies who young men were available to interact. Young squires were encouraged to find a young lady of their attention. Please don’t misunderstand this. This was not an early marriage proposal. It was not just a way to envision a dating relationship. This person was simply an…inspiration for a young knight.
As I said before, a young knight was to be inspired by their service to their Lord (or King), but this relationship was servant to Master relationship. Although it serves much good for the character of a young knight, it is the Lady of attention which expands the other side of one’s character.
The squire (and the knight) knows that he needs to act appropriately for her benefit. He does what he does for his Lord, and for his Lady. His exploits are for the honour of his Lord and Lady. Some of these are obvious (saving the life of his King), will encourage him to keep working hard to build his body into a fine tool for service. However, this does not explain the need for a young squire to learn the rule of chivalry. The Lady of his attention is the one inspires him to become, not the greatest of savage brutes, but the greatest of noble men.
One of the web sites that I have enjoyed for this concept of Chivalry is:
http://www.chivalry.net/
You might want to check this out if you have time.
I am not sure if you have ever read the story Don Quixote, a great read if you find the time. Don Quixote is old man who’s mind is failing him and decides that he is a knight errant. To this end he finds a woman of his attention. Amazingly, she is actually only a peasant girl in his local town. At one point the admits he has only seen her once and has never spoken to her. In fact, he doesn’t even know her name he called her Dulcinea. He then proceeds to go out in the name of his Dulcinea to bring her honour. The following is his description of Dulcinea.
"… her name is Dulcinea, her country El Toboso, a village of La Mancha, her rank must be at least that of a princess, since she is my queen and lady, and her beauty superhuman, since all the impossible and fanciful attributes of beauty which the poets apply to their ladies are verified in her; for her hairs are gold, her forehead Elysian fields, her eyebrows rainbows, her eyes suns, her cheeks roses, her lips coral, her teeth pearls, her neck alabaster, her bosom marble, her hands ivory, her fairness snow, and what modesty conceals from sight such, I think and imagine, as rational reflection can only extol, not compare." [Don Quixote: Volume 1/Chapter XIII]
Her real name is Aldonza, and her opinion of Don Quixote evolves from distrust to sincere belief in Don Quixote's quest, and in the man himself. She begins as someone who has no self-worth, Aldonza, and through Quixote's belief in her, she begins to believe in herself as someone of great worth and takes on the name Dulcinea.
With these concepts, I believe a young squire who becomes a knight needs not only a king to serve, but a woman to love. Until my next post…God’s continued grace to you and yours, -Brother Bradley Avi
I guess I would be amiss not to post a small photo of my own Dulcinea, She has been my lovely wife for 18 years and my dearest friend before that. She's been camera shy most because she has just given birth to my 8th child, another boy. This photo was taken while she was pregnant, but I think she'll forgive me. I love you, Julie.
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