I’ve heard the saying often that you have to live in reality. I’ve heard this from my parents when I announced after my high school graduation that I wanted to live in Europe for a year, backpacking it with my best friend before going to college. I’ve heard it from my brother when I confided in him that I had an overwhelming desire to join the circus at the age of ten. I’ve heard it from my friends when I said I wanted to get married to the perfect man, have the perfect family and lead the perfect life. Their reaction to me was to ‘get real.’
Now that I’m older and I think wiser (at least, I’d like to believe all the hype that Oprah, Dr. Oz and Betty White are feeding me about aging gracefully), I wonder what’s wrong with NOT living in reality? What’s wrong with dreaming? What’s wrong with chasing after impossible goals? If you look back at the biggest success stories of all times, each and everyone one of them had someone behind the scenes balking that it will never work, it will never happen, stop living with your head up in the clouds, start living in reality.
If the Wright Brothers had listened to the naysayers, I would be taking a two week trip on a steamer across the Atlantic, likely getting sea sick, instead of listening to music on my headsets in my comfy coach seat for six hours (OK, well not comfy as in first class but still better than a sea level cabin on the Titanic) on Air France going to Paris.
If Alexander Graham Bell had subscribed to the “half empty” rather than “half full” mentality, I wouldn’t be texting my husband that I need him to pick me up some milk from the store on his way home from work or calling my best girlfriend on my cell phone to let her know I’m running late for our happy hour ritual on a Friday afternoon. I’d be sending out my messages using smoke signals, a pigeon or some guy on a horse.
And if Jane Austen had believed, like so many in her day, that only men had a place in writing great literature, I would not be typing this blog today.
So, I have resolved to stop living in reality and start reaching for the stars, stop walking with my two feet on the ground and start floating in the clouds. The view is much better from there anyway.