Q is Quan… or Qwan…

Jerry Maguire is my least favorite Cameron Crowe movie, but overall it’s not a terrible film. Although, honestly, I think without Ray (Jonathan Lipnicki), Dorothy’s (Renee Zellweger) son, and Rod (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), this would probably be a forgettable movie. Much of the dialogue seemed forced and Renee Zellweger’s character was awfully weak. I also just didn’t feel the chemistry between her and Jerry (pre-publicly crazy Tom Cruise).

But, as I said, Ray and Rod made up for many of the movie’s shortcomings. Which brings me to the Q topic for today: Quan or Qwan. There seems to be some confusion on the internet as to how it’s actually spelled, but since it’s a made-up word anyway, I supposed it doesn’t matter.

We’re introduced to Quan in a conversation between Rod (the football player) and Jerry (his sports agent), where Jerry is trying to tell Rod that he’s “talking” about contract renegotiations. This doesn’t sit well with Rod, who wants action not just “talk”. He wants what the great football players have–Qwan:

Jerry: “That’s your word? Quan?”
Rod: “Hell yeah, that’s my word. You know some dudes may have the coin, but they’ll never have the quan.”
Jerry: “What…What is…?”
Rod: “It’s love, respect, community…and the dollars, too. The whole package. The Quan.”

That’s what Rod’s Quan is, but I think all of us have our own version of The Quan. For some of us, love and family and community is enough to make life ideal. For others, being wealthy alone signifies achievement of Qwan. In the movie, Jerry thinks his quan is getting back in the game after being fired from his top position at an elite sports agency. He finds out in the end that, while the money is nice to have, it means nothing without love and family. His qwan is Dorothy and her son.

So what’s your quan? Is it all that Rod seeks or is it something else? Is it maybe fame and glory, or is it having a family? Or something totally different?