There I was sitting in front of my computer…pondering. I was way behind on my hit list, which essentially is my must do list that is begging for attention and resolution. In the background, I was listening to Rod Stewart as I attempted to deal with loads of unaddressed issues. In spite of my hit list’s long inventory of issues, I was rereading an essay that I wrote about Ti Ti, who is one of my three granddaughters in Myanmar. Interestingly, I mentioned in that essay Rod Stewart’s song, Forever Young, was, from my perspective, about Ti Ti and her two younger sisters.

I morphed back and forth from thinking about returning to Myanmar in just over a year and remembering my relationship with my family on my previous trips in the past five years. However, precisely like listening to Forever Young, I noticed Sailing was playing in the background. And as I did with Forever Young, I googled Rod Stewart Sailing and got the official video. It was a very dated video. Stewart’s song was released nearly four decades ago.

Sailing

However, I clicked on wiki’s site about Sailing. Unlike Forever Young, Stewart didn’t write the song. It was written by Gavin Sutherland who was from near Aberdeen, Scotland. Additionally, it wasn’t about romance, which is interesting, because Forever Young wasn’t either. Sutherland said that Sailing was about “mankind's spiritual odyssey through life….”

Therefore, I sat down and wrote about my odyssey of dreaming through life. I have written numerous essays about Bobby Kennedy’s paraphrase of George Bernard Shaw’s comment in Back to Methuselah. Bobby’s version was “Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.” 

A dreamer….

Bobby’s comment about dreaming has been used as my signature on all my emails since you could add signaturess. Nevertheless, that single sentence definds who I am. I am a dreamer.

Dreaming for me is a drug that I use to get me from where I am to where I wish to be. Now, sometimes the dreaming is realized and other times I fail. However, win or lose, I dream dreams “that never were and say, why not.”

Let me tell you of a dream of mine…the single must important dream in my entire life. I want to acquire in the next year a half million dollars. I want to return to Taunggyi where my family lives and my three granddaughters attend two different schools. However, that was the result of dreaming. Allow me to tell you how I started dreaming.

Just before leaving my family on my latest trip to Myanmar, I told Ti Ti that I wanted to give her my laptop, which I used only as my storage device for pictures and videos while on my trip. Interestingly, she is now my assistant web administrator and is adding captions to my photos, which will soon be available for readers of my website. Nonetheless, when Ti Ti isn’t working on her laptop, she can use it for school and research.

My gift was nice, but the Internet speed is extremely slow in Myanmar. Therefore, my gift had some very severe limitations when it came to using the Internet. Additionally, what about the classmates of my three granddaughters. How many of them have laptops or how many have ever used one? Therefore, my dream multiplied by 1250. That is the number of classmates in the two schools that they attend in Taunggyi. It will cost me about $400,000 for that many laptops. Then add in the cost of improving the Internet to the two schools in addition monthly charges for the Internet, which will cost another $100,000.

Myanmar is a developing country. Without the next generation of leaders in Myanmar utilizing the Internet for especially education, Myanmar will develop very slowly during the rest of the 21st century.

Granted, a half million dollars raised in a year is a huge dream, I get that. However, it is more than worth it. I can’t accept contributions yet. I have been incorporated as We Are Family in Myanmar, Inc. as a not for profit charity, but I am still waiting for my authorization as a 501c3.

However, in the meantime, in We Are Family on my webpage, I ask for contributions toward $500,000. Additionally, I would appreciate you emailing your friends and/or charitable foundations to read about We Are Family in Myanmar, Inc. The third request is to return with me to Myanmar during winter break a year for now to personally see where your money is being used for educating 1250 young minds in Myanmar.

Even before actually getting my 501c3, I am dreaming the second phase of dreams in helping Myanmar. I love dreaming dreams “that never were and say, why not.” And you can help my dream for Myanmar come true.

Follow @mountain_and_me