Kitty hawk, tranquility base, the three-minute mile, bottled water, and splitting the atom.
Kitty hawk, tranquility base, the three-minute mile, bottled water, and splitting the atom.
All of the items in the subject of this story are well known for the history and the successes associated with the events surrounding them. Kitty hawk is where the Wright brothers achieved manned flight, tranquility base is the place where astronauts first landed on the moon, the three minute mile was once thought an impossibility, bottle water is sold in volumes and quantities unimagined, and splitting the atom was never going to happen,
While all of these achievements are now a part of our everyday life and not thought of or seen in the light of all the effort it took to bring them into being, by the individuals that struggled to achieve them. I have to think that those individuals, faced their share of personal obstacles, including what might be referred to as “haters” doubters and naysayers. The long and short of it all is, through perseverance and dedication to the effort they sought to achieve, they were still able to do what was once thought impossible.
Whoever we are, as individuals, or team members, we too can achieve and do what is set before us today, all we have to do is just do it. The only thing that is impossible is that thing that hasn’t been done YET …. and as for the haters, doubters and naysayers, let them do what they always do, doubt discourage and hate, until the eventually successes prove them wrong. While we dedicate ourselves to the effort, to take flight maybe even visit tranquility base, travel twice the speed of sound, drink our bottle water, surf onto web sites reflecting on splitting the atom, and celebrate and the knowledge and the fact that we are amazing, resilient inherently built to dream and to ultimately make those dreams come true .
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Reviewed by Ronald Hull
6/20/2013
While I wholly agree with the premise of your article (not story), that perseverance and working as a team or as individuals against great odds achieved great things, I have a couple of nitpicking things that I'd like you to consider.
I believe it was the 4 minute mile that was thought to be impossible before Roger Bannister finally broke the barrier.
The other accomplishments pale in comparison to landing on the moon. For that achievement, we became extraterrestrials, setting us on a course to the stars and a quantum leap from discovering nuclear energy.
I can't place bottled water has some kind of achievement overcoming all odds. The earliest civilizations stored water in terra-cotta bottles 8000 years ago. From goatskin bags, to canteens, carrying water was essential for those who hunted and gathered, and couldn't find water for days. Bottled water is similar to the discovery of fire in that regard.
As for the modern bottled water, while it may be lifeblood to parts of the world that no longer have any clean, potable water to drink, the commercial bottled water we have is a bane to society. Bottled water in plastic bottles is very expensive, and proven to be no better, and, in many cases, worse, than water from municipal water supplies and tested wells. The cast-off bottles pollute our streets and communities, and end up in the water and are washed to the sea, adding to the buildup of plastic clogging our oceans and killing birds, mammals and fish in untold numbers just for our convenience and wasteful lifestyles. I get along fine without ever drinking and carrying with me a plastic water bottle.
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