The Ripple Effect… “…Can Sweep Down the Mightiest Walls.”

The Ripple Effect…
“…Can Sweep Down the Mightiest Walls.”

This is an explanation regarding what drives me. Bobby Kennedy put words to my feelings and energy, “Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.” While that is me, nonetheless, there is often an issue of translating ephemeral dreams into something a bit more concrete.

Bobby, my mentor

While dreaming is a central aspect of me, so is the issue that I must move beyond the dreaming to reality. Again, Bobby fleshes it out for me.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

For example, I was forced into reality while dreaming about my family and extended family in Taunggyi, Myanmar. Facing reality as a dreamer occurred due to two situations. I gave Ti Ti my laptop, because the only thing that it provided for me was a place to store the pictures and videos, which I took while in Myanmar. While Ti Ti can benefit from it, she can’t come close to fully utilizing it without getting the greatly improved speed and bandwidth from Internet providers in Myanmar.

The improved bandwidth ties into a reality check. My family in Taunggyi is a part of my nuclear family. However, what about my extended family? My extended family are my granddaughters’ classmates that attend two different schools in Taunggyi. They don’t have laptops nor good Internet service.

As much as I love my nuclear family, my granddaughters’ friends are a part of my extended family. Therefore, I need to get 1250 laptops and improved Internet service to the two schools that my granddaughters attend. That will cost me $500,000. I’m 75, semi-retired, and can’t come up with about a half million dollars just laying around in my office. Enter Bobby again. Therefore, I will do what he suggested, “Hang a lantern on your problems.” I have a friend, Scott, at the college at which I teach who told me to use GoFundMe.com. I am in the process of writing about my dream of raising a half million dollars.

Bobby addresses another issue. Transforming my dreams into some concrete entities is a Herculean task. I can list several dozen pressing issues that need to be addressed before my dream comes close to becoming a fait accompli. Bobby said, “Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey.” He is correct. While I am a dreamer, dreaming won’t get me to my destination without beginning to go down the yellow brick road even without seeing precisely the road that lies ahead.

Finally, Bobby said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” I am exposing myself to utter failure. I get that and can taste it, and I don’t like failing. I get that I could be setting myself up to look like a fool. However, I realize that I have but two choices. I can quit and do nothing, which will produce nothing. Or I can risk being a fool and raise about a half million dollars. The cowardly approach won’t make my dream come true.

Interestingly, just over a dozen years before Bobby Kennedy was born, Teddy Roosevelt gave a speech at the Sorbonne in Paris. No one remembers his very long speech, but everyone remembers one paragraph called Man in the Arena.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Time will tell whether I can succeed at raising $500,000. However, either in victor or in defeat, I will do so “daring greatly.” Go to We Are Family. In my introduction to my dream, you will see three suggestions for you to assist me.

1. I am asking you to contribute to the money necessary to enhance the Internet reception and purchase 1250 laptops. Consider contributing to the purchase of one or a hundred laptops and improving Internet reception.

2. My next request is to send this link, We Are Family, to ten of your friends and ask them to send it to ten of their friends…ad infinitum. Bobby Kennedy said, “Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.” I am a dreamer, but my dreams will benefit my extended family in Myanmar with your help.

3. My final request is to consider returning with me to Myanmar with all the laptops for the two schools. The sooner that I raise a half million dollars, the sooner that we can go to Myanmar and see where your investment in laptops will benefit the education of the next generation.