We're Still Missing It

Earlier this month the website, The Best Article Every Day posted 10 Things We Were Supposed to Have By 2011, But Don't. These included robots, food pills, and flying cars. I of course went in my mind to a different type of list- the Top Impossible Dreams.

At the top, naturally, is world peace. Its impossibility may be debatable, but it sure doesn't look like something we can expect in this life. Tied with that would be peace in the Middle East, or {name that place.}

100% Renewable energy was on the promises list, but in the long run it sure looks more like an impossible task. There's also something about the conservation of mass and energy as well as the dreaded arrow of entropy that can come into play.

Let's add getting rid of poverty..

And then add getting rid of hatred and prejudice.

Now it begins to get a little depressing. Which reminds me that while things may be impossible, that doesn't mean we can't make things better. Perfection is impossible, but we can keep striving for it. Sometimes when we strive for those impossible things we may seem like a dreamer (John Lennon) or worse, crazy.

Which brings me to one of my all-time favorite musicals and it's iconic song: Man of La Mancha and The Impossible Dream. Don Quixote is a dreamer, living in a fantasy world of make-believe dragons and damsels in distress. Or maybe they aren't so make-believe. Maybe it is the world that refuses to see that allows them to be ignored.

What we are missing is not the things we were promised, but the ability to see the needs and march into hell for heavenly causes. World-wide peace may not some into being for a long, long time, but I sure ca work to make it a reality around me.

So for all us Don Quixotes and Sancho Panzas running around tilting at windmills, let's dedicate the dream to you.




To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star