“According to aerodynamic laws, the bumblebee cannot fly. Its body weight is not the right proportion to its wingspan. Ignoring these laws, the bumblebee flies anyway.“
M. Sainte-Lague
You have a son. He is small, slow, and un-athletic. He is currently in a job that you feel holds tremendous potential for his future. He comes to you and announces that he is giving up his job, moving to South Bend, Indiana; and will pursue his dream of making the Notre Dame Football team. Knowing that this son of yours could barely find playing time on his high school football team, what would your reaction be? You would probably do what any parent that wants the best for their child would do- try to dissuade him from making this colossal mistake and suffering the certain heartbreak that accompanies trying to do the impossible. It is a good thing that Rudy Ruettigerdid not listen to his parents when they tried to dissuade him, because this small, slow, and un-athletic dreamer did the impossible – he made the Notre Dame Football team.
At one time, nearly every significant accomplishment seemed impossible. Can you imagine the howls of laughter and ridicule Wilbur and Orville Wright must have endured when they determined that man would indeed fly? Impossibly absurd is how the notion of putting a man on the moon must have seemed when the concept was born. I certainly would not counsel you to chuck your job and chase whatever ephemeral fancy is currently dancing in your head, but it is undeniable that you will never achieve anything significant unless you do it in the face of scoffers, doubters, and critics. Where would the bumblebee be if it listened to the scientific experts telling it flight was impossible? Where would I be had I listened to the experts that gave me 3 to 5 years to live in 1983?
If you were to look at my current list of goals, you would find many that seem next to impossible to achieve as well as those that make me appear in utter denial of my medical condition. Indeed, many of my goals will take an awesome amount of creativity backed by an indomitable will. Some goals must even wait for the medical breakthrough that will free me from my neuromuscular prison. What will not happen with these goals is this- they will not come off the list until completion. Tough? Yes. Impossible? No way.
In the Trenches with You,
Coach Jeff