Dreams

"Hold fast to dreams. For if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."

- Langston Hughes

    I stumbled across this quote today; its veracity stopped me cold. When we're young, we all have dreams of what we want in our lives, not just at the moment, such as asking for a pony, but more so for the future. We dream of being astronauts, actors, musicians, and even the President. Then life comes along, and responsibilities ensue. Things like getting an education, a job, marriage, kids, and a safe place to live suddenly take precedence, and those big, important dreams slowly recede into a memory, never to be lived.

    But what if we could make such dreams come true? I am a firm believer that they can. I mean, why not? If you want something badly enough, why not give it everything you've got to make it happen? I've watched many people turn their dreams into lives they envisioned. People who became doctors, medical researchers, business entrepreneurs, writers, musicians, actors, inventors, and countless others. Each of them believed not just in the dream, they also believed in themselves, and that if they worked hard enough at it, they could turn the dream from a wish to reality. 

    Last night I watched the film, The Freedom Writers, which came out in 2007, about a teacher and her class of troubled students in Long Beach, California. When I say troubled, I mean TROUBLED. These kids were in gangs or were on parole or dealing drugs, and have witnessed more deaths in their gang-infested neighborhood than most morticians. They're rife with attitude, hate, arrogance, and bigotry toward anyone outside of their ethnicity. Then along comes a teacher in her first job after graduating college who has never seen, much less known, kids like these. And boy, do the kids pick up on her insecurity and make her job 200% harder than she imagined. Early on, you think she's gonna quit any moment. Except she doesn't, and you know why? Because she had a dream to make a difference in these kids' lives. She applied to teach at this crime-ridden school because she believed she could help these kids, and she wasn't going to let anything, even the backward, archaic-thinking school administration, get in her way of turning these kids around. Ultimately, she succeeds, but it wasn't an overnight achievement. It started with baby steps and using creative teaching techniques that other teachers at the school ridiculed. As I watched the film, I kept thinking and hoping that this was a true story. Turns out it was which made my heart practically burst out of my chest with joy. I love films based on real life and real events, especially where someone achieves something incredibly unbelievable, something that seems unachievable, and then you watch the person succeed.

    I suppose the film appealed to me because it fit right in with my notion and the quote about dreams. Anything is possible if you believe in yourself and never let go of your dream, no matter how big or small, no matter your age or experience. It's your dream and only you can make it happen. 

    Just imagine if Colonel Sanders thought that at 62 years old he was too old to open his first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.  

   Grandma Moses, didn't pick up a paintbruch until she reached her 60s. It took 10 years her work was noticed. Once they were, her paintings were displayed at the Museum of Modern Art.

Joseph Campbell opened his canned goods company at age 52. He sold canned tomatoes, condiments, and jellies. He developed his first condensed soup, tomato soup, at 78 years old.

And finally, Laura Ingalls Wilder quit school at the age of sixteen and worked with a dressmaker. She was in her forties when she began writing, but it wasn't until she was in her 60s that she wrote Little House in the Big Woods and began to gain a following.

Inspiration comes from everywhere. Personally, I am inspired by people who pursue their dreams regardless of barriers.


Till next time,

Jeffree Wyn

The Generous Spirit

I recently learned about a relative doing something so extraordinary that it made me reconsider the choices we make. It is in moments like these that you realize there are those around us who practice benevolence, selflessness, graciousness, altruism, and compassion every day without ever giving a second thought to doing what they deem is right.

There have always been people who follow a moral and ethical code, the most extraordinary example having occurred during World War Two. Some non-Jews could not tolerate what was happening to their Jewish neighbors and took it upon themselves to hide Jews, save them by providing forged travel documents, rescue them from deportation to the camps, and do anything else they could to prevent the mass slaughter of the Jewish people. These people who risked their own lives to save others became known as Righteous Gentiles. Of the nearly nine million Jews living in Europe before the Holocaust, it's believed that six million perished in the Nazi genocide. Thousands, if not millions more would have also died were it not for the courageous intervention of a few world leaders and thousands of individuals who risked their lives to save Jews from the gas chambers. Many of them paid for their heroism with their lives.

Good moral character comes in all forms, from major acts of valor to quiet behind-the-scenes gestures that few notice other than the beneficiaries. And that is where people like my relative come in, doing something unexpected that redefines kindness. This family member lost her husband of many years. It was devastating for her, and you would have thought that lifelong close friends would have gathered around supporting and caring for her. That's what dear friends do, right? Yet quite the opposite occurred. They stayed away, as though they might get the plague if they came near. Only one friend came to her aid, a friend who helped her get through one of the most difficult times of her life. Fast forward several years. The best friend of the widow's husband passed away. Rather than treat the new widow as she was treated, my relative came to her aid, sitting with her, taking her on walks and errands, in short, doing whatever she could to ease the woman's pain. She never thought twice about helping; it was the right thing to do.

When you start recognizing goodness around you, all of a sudden, you begin remembering witnessing other such acts of decency, character, and morality.

Several years ago, a colleague at work walked into the office wet from the rainstorm and wearing flip flops, which was highly unusual for that time. I noticed and asked her if there was a new dress code I didn't know about. She said there wasn't and she planned to buy a more office-appropriate pair during her lunch. She saw the confused look on my face and sat down on a chair in my office to explain.

"I put on my blue flats this morning to wear to work. As I pulled out of my garage, the rain started to come down hard. I drove through it, and at a traffic light, I saw a homeless woman standing on a curb without any shoes. She was in pretty bad shape. I pulled over to the curb, got out of the car, took off my shoes, and handed them to her. She needed them more than I did. When I got to the office, I took out this pair of flip flops I keep in the trunk for emergencies."

My colleague didn't hesitate for a moment to help a stranger in need. If that isn't the purest form of a generous spirit, I don't know what is. These stories remind me that every single one of us is capable of being a hero, or simply doing good for another less fortunate when the need arises. In this new world where divisiveness reigns and people are more interested in casting blame and turning from one another, we could all do with being generous spirits and helping to make this place we call home a better place.




Till next time,

Jeffree Wyn

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