The Sky's the Limit!

-
A boy, quite close to his father, comes to him with a big question on his mind:

Son: Dad, I've been thinking about the term "the sky's the limit."  Does it mean that we can do anything?
Father: Well, let's examine it together.  Jump as high as you can in the air. (The boy jumps.) What did that tell you?
Son: Well, I can only jump so high.
Father: Can you go higher?
Son: No.
Father: But, what if I give you a ladder and you climbed to the peak of the house?  Would you then be higher?
Son: Well, yes.
Father: Did you do it through your own effort?
Son: Yes.  And if I had a mountain to climb I could go even higher!
Father: What would it take to go higher still?
Son: A plane.
Father: So, is there anything above that is holding you back?
Son: No, I just require the means.  Like a ladder or a plane.
Father: What would it take for you to go, let's say to the moon?
Son: A rocket ship.  And being an astronaut.
Father: Could you become an astronaut?
Son: I don't know.  I would have to study and be healthy and have the right experience and the right circumstances.  The odds would be low, but it could happen.
Father: You stand here not as an astronaut and you have neither a ladder, a mountain, a plane or a rocket.  Still, as we went through this, did you imagine yourself going onto the roof, up a mountain, in a plane and to the moon?
Son: I did.
Father: Do you see a place where even the sky is not the limit?
Son: Yes, Dad, I do.  In my mind.  I can go anywhere!




Father: I can see in your eyes that you are taking flight as we speak!  To give your flight the depth of spirit I give you the poem High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.:
 
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Father: As much as we learn to love the flight of ideas, thoughts and feelings, not all of our experience is meant to be without challenge and many there will be.  Trust yourself, for the truth is resilient, ever emerging and within you.


Then the father sent the boy on his way with a peaceful smile in anticipation of the gifts his beloved boy would bring back from his life journey.

Please check out my other blog mates' takes on the same topic brought to us by Sanjana at their blogs: Padmum, Raju, Ramana, Sanjana and Shackman!

Comments

  1. Shackman September 3, 2020 at 2:39 PM

    And never has the difference between you and I been ore obvious - you go to Camus and I to the Beach Boys and the Beatles. And yet, we ended up in the same place. Gotta love blogging.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilSeptember 3, 2020 at 2:51 PM

      Viva la superficial difference!

      Delete
    2. Shackman September 3, 2020 at 4:28 PM

      I beg to differ - nothing superficial about it - you are a much calmer, thoughtful person than I - I am direct and volatile



      Delete
    3. The Old FossilSeptember 3, 2020 at 4:36 PM

      I never thought of that. Ironic. You seem direct, but not volatile. I love the way you just cut to the chase.

      Delete
  2. The Old FossilSeptember 3, 2020 at 2:49 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. VikiSeptember 3, 2020 at 6:02 PM

    Loved this, and High Flight takes me back so many years!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilSeptember 3, 2020 at 10:46 PM

      I loved that when we were kids! Last thing each night on the TV.

      Delete
  4. Ramana RajgopaulSeptember 4, 2020 at 4:27 AM

    How I wish that I had had a father like that when I was a boy. I did however have a mother to compensate who goaded me into doing things that I would not have done otherwise to make me into a person different to what I would have been but, more to her idea of what her first born should be. The point is that the inner voice is all very well but, an outside influence to mould raw clay into a finished work of art often makes all the difference.

    And, that takes me back to our LBC days and this post where, due to space constraints, I have removed the comments but remember yours as being in awe! https://www.rummuser.com/ambition/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilSeptember 4, 2020 at 6:39 PM

      Your comment about the external agent molding the clay is spot on. It can be all the difference in the release of a child's potential.

      Delete
  5. Maria Perry MohanSeptember 5, 2020 at 11:20 AM

    As usual, you've got an entirely different take on the topic than the other group members. Plenty of food for thought between yourself, Shackman and Ramana. Your point about Camus has me intrigued. I'll have to dig more deeply, I'm thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilSeptember 5, 2020 at 11:38 AM

      As you remember the idea behind the old LBC, posting simultaneously was our way of having a collection of original takes to share views and ideas without the bias of reading another's take first. Then we would discuss. It is good to have you back in that mix.

      Delete
  6. Srinivas CSeptember 9, 2020 at 10:28 PM

    Very beautifully put, indeed !!!
    I particularly like such upbeat articles, which are suffused by good sense while not being positive in a hopelessly superficial manner.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilSeptember 9, 2020 at 11:34 PM

      Thank you so much and a hearty welcome to the group!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why My Blog's Named Conrad Memories From the Future

-
Image
  Albert Einstein has become a cultural icon of genius and most people are aware that he came up with something called Relativity, but they don't really know much except that it is some really heady thing and kind of cool to people who don't live in the real world.  So they think! Einstein is one of my leading heroes of history and it is because he was not just quirky and brilliant, it was because at the heart of things he was actually a theoretician that could work wonders in his head and bring them down to earth in such a way that they could be proven true or false.  They weren't just nice or fun ideas, they were resolvable as facts in the universe.  And, oh the implications of those facts! Let's deal with one of his proven facts of Special Relativity (and I am leaving out the implications of General Relativity on purpose, even though some of what I explain, like the clock in orbit, incorporate parts of it).  I won't go into any detail because it requires way too
Read more

Recipes for my grandchildren

-
Image
 Let's get something cleared up right away - I am not a cook.  Other than the Barbecue and I could always cook them up some hamburgers or fish or veggies there, but that would be the end of this post.  As much as you might wish that, I am going to instead forge ahead on a quite different path. I have four grandkids that I will list later, but it is important to lay the groundwork for the tale I have to tell.  I had two grandfathers, the most relevant people for my background as a grandfather.  One of them was a bar room brawler with alcohol problems in his early grandfatherly years, but all of that was hidden from the view of me as a child.  He was after all a good provider and was warm enough with us kids, so there was never a problem there. My other grandfather was, as we were told when we were young since there was just too much to hide, a bit eccentric.  In reality, as my mother so aptly phrased it, he was nutty as a fruitcake.  That is unkind, for in that early age, there were
Read more