A Ramble.

 ...I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish...  - President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961, Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs. Courtesy: John F. Kennedy Library and Museum

Apollo 11 landing on the moon was a huge undertaking. In the beginning scientists were practically saying it was impossible. It took seemingly endless discussions for them to even figure the design for the spacecraft. A whole new kind of rocket had to be built just to get the astronauts away from the Earth.


And they failed. The mission designated as Apollo was was meant to be an orbital test of the spacecraft design. As the astronauts sat in the capsule awaiting launch, somewhere in the miles of electric wires a spark jumped. In the oxygen rich atmosphere of the capsule a fire started and within seconds consumed the capsule, and the three brave men inside.

Those men, Virgil "Gus" Ivan Grissom, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF, Edward Higgins White, II, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF and, Roger Bruce Chaffee, Lieutenant Commander, USN, knew the risks. They knew what they were doing when they signed up. And they knew that failure was going to happen. They didn't let fear get in the way of moving past failure to eventual success. Their sacrifice led to a redesign on the craft and to the eventual safe landing and return of the Apollo 11 mission, just two short years later.


I am telling this story for my kids, and for other kids, and for those of you out there who might be struggling to find a direction in life. The lesson to learn from this can be stated this way:


 Don't let fear of failure keep you from doing the impossible. Any dream worth achieving is worth failure in trying to get there. 


And you will fail, probably multiple times, before you get there. That's no reason to quit. 


Dream your dreams, then go make them the truth.


Success will take sacrifice. But in the end, sacrifice and failure will get you where you need to go. You cannot have success without both failure and sacrifice.


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If you dream is to write, then write. Write your heart out. Write every day. Write until your fingers bleed. Then, when you have something you want to share, then put it out there. If you think it's worth putting in a book, send it to publishers. You will get rejected. I will tell you that right now, you WILL get rejected. And rejected a lot. But in being rejected you will learn. And in learning you will become better. Eventually, you will be accepted, if you work for it.


If you dream it to paint and draw, do it. Just DO it. When you produce something you want to share, then share it. Maybe someone will buy it, most likely they won't. But by putting it OUT THERE, you will learn. And in learning you will become better, if you work for it.


And a final PS, don't let stupid crap stand in the way of your dream. Life is work. Life is pain. You are going to have to deal with a lot of crap in the course of your life. But crap shouldn't define you and the person you are. Be the person you dream yourself to be, even when you don't feel it. Push the stupid life stuff out of the way and work on your dream. Yes, you still have to deal with it, but that doesn't mean you should let it keep you from dreaming.