This Time ...

It reads:

To my children, who I hope become like Fletcher and go—beyond.

Love, Your Mother.

I have always been fascinated, to the point of near obsession, with those people who devote themselves unapologetically to the pursuit of—realizing an impossible possibility.

I stand in awe of the few who endeavor to discover what reality might exist on the other side of predictable. Those restless souls, refusing to be contained, determined to escape the boundaries of normal, who set out to challenge the status quo and raise the bar, introducing a new truth that expands the world for us all.

Beyond the daily grind, beyond what we already know to be true, beyond, “it just can’t be done”, there are the few who will choose to respond to that persistent whisper that beckons from within—“What if”.

As they accept the invitation to forsake probability for the chance to chase a dream, those few bear the pessimism of the discouraged, the optimism of the promising; the hopes of those who might never dare to try or dare to ever try again.

Once upon a time there was a man who had a dream. To dream, however, in his world where most were resigned to learn nothing more than the basics of surviving day to day—how to get from “A” to “B” and back to “A” again—was to invite ridicule and tempt the gods of failure. Practicality was the standard that everyone was expected to live up to. Just enough to get by but no more; no less either if you wanted to fit in, be safe and avoid making waves. In a world where dreaming was considered a waste of valuable time, this man felt small, confined and driven by a relentless desire to test the limits of his own potential.

So,

he set out to blaze a new trail across an already settled frontier, certain of where he wanted to end up, unclear about how in the world he would manage to get there.

How does one steer toward a reality that no one else has seen?

With his focus fixed forward on an imagined destination, he would have to endure uncertainty, resignation and doubt. He would have to rise above animosity, skepticism and fear to eventually triumph over defeat. Every time the man was knocked down, disregarded and counted out, he found a way to get back up again and press on, knowing that this would have to be an all or nothing proposition in direct response to “the fierce urgency of now”.

Guided by his simple yet compelling belief that this was in fact his time, he defied reason and disregarded logic, ignoring any evidence that would suggest he was out of his league and way over his head, for the chance to inspire a generation.