Wednesday; May 24

When President John Kennedy addressed those assembled at Rice University on September 12, 1962 he made a pledge to them that before His generation was done – in fact before the decade was over – Americans would land on the moon. In retrospect, this doesn’t seem to be that great of a feat (we have been there several times now), but when the pledge was made, it had never been done before. While this dream echoes throughout history, the thing that I find interesting is Kennedy’s rationale for do it. During the address he noted, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and sills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, on we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”. In essence, the desire to send man to the moon wasn’t because it could be accomplished easily, but because it would test our mettle. Sending humans to the moon stretched us to accomplish more. The reward wouldn’t be relaxation, it would be revolution. The payoff wouldn’t be a chance to relax on a vacation, but to realize a dream.

Have we lost the ability to envision what is possible? Are we willing to settle for what we have always done? Imagine the worlds and accomplishments that are waiting to be explored by those who have the vision and the drive to do what has never been done before! It is hard – but it can chance us and the world forever!

Think About It!

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