This is what the first chapter of the book has made to do to every main character in any book or movie that I come across. Until I read this, I never made it a point to differentiate between a simple trip and a quest; because, first of all, I didn't know there even was a difference, and second, because I honestly never cared enough to dig deeper into anything I've read (or seen). Now whether or not "Michael's" trip was just a trip or a grand quest is still up for debate, but the things that follow lead me to believe that Sir Michael is, in fact, a knight of sorts on a grand quest. His trip down the lonely road transformed into a quest of becoming a professional football player, and there was plenty of troubles along Sir Michael's way; and in case you didn't get it, this example is paying homage to the main character in the movie, "The Blind Side."
One thing that really stuck with me from this chapter is when Foster says "The reason for a quest is always self-knowledge" (which makes sense because usually people who go on quests suffer through some crazy trials that no one who is secure with themselves would bother facing.) And since this is the true meaning of a quest, could it not be said that puberty, not the physical but the maturing aspect of it, could be the ultimate quest for all humans. The pubescent years (teen years) are some of the most confusing times in a person's life, and most teens can't see it but the bulk of the trials that we face aren't just small individual molehills, but they add up to become one large mountain and overcoming that mountain of tribulations is what leads to maturity and self discovery, the ultimate goal of this quest.
Apparently a quest is the most basic idea in literature, this is quite unsettling for me since I have been having a particularly difficult time with it, but never the less I can see why that can be said. My problem arises mostly in the select instances when a trip to the store is simply a trip to the store, when saints aren't seen in random balloons, or when a random decision is just that and nothing more. I still haven't been able to come up with a decent example of a simple trip that doesn't become something more, even though according to the title of this chapter there should be a few. So maybe the title of the chapter is a little misleading, it should actually just be "Every Trip IS a Quest. Period."
