Day 28: Let them dream big

02/05/18 Day 28

Task—Write your own eulogy. I took a different direction and wrote about dreams. A portrait of Dwight Eisenhower was posted front and center in nearly every classroom I ever entered as a student in the public schools of Abilene, Kansas. As a kid, I would contemplate Ike’s earnest eyes and his thinning hair, and I would marvel at the fact he had grown up walking the same streets where I walked and seeing the same piece of sky I could see just beyond my fourth-grade classroom. I vividly remember the way our small town celebrated Ike’s 100th birthday. The museum hosted special speakers like Billy Graham and Ronald Reagan. There were fireworks and a laser of Eisenhower’s face that went into the sky, and we all felt pride beaming forth from our chests when we heard a soundbite of our nation’s 34th president proclaiming the proudest thing he could claim was he was from Abilene. We all knew he was a five-star general who strategized D-Day, but for some reason we all bought into his claim. For me, the Ike love was 100 percent real! I saw his life's story as a symbol of hope. If he could achieve what he had, it meant that there was hope for me to achieve something big, too. I remember thinking things like, “See! People from Abilene really can make it big.” I am really grateful I got to dream big like that while I was growing up, and I am thankful that people who had their hands on my life taught me to carry these dreams with me. As I was trying to get some inspiration for my writing today, I did a little research about Tom Brady, and I came across an article that ran in USA Today on Brady’s 40th birthday, “40 Fun Facts for Tom Brady’s 40th Birthday”. One interesting fact the article reported was that Tom Brady attended the 1981 NFC Championship game where the 49ers played the Cowboys. The game is memorable because of a play made by the 49ers toward the game’s end. The 49ers and the Cowboys had leap-frogged each other throughout the entire game, and with 58 seconds left, the Cowboys were up, 27-21. Joe Montana, quarterback for the 49ers, threw a high pass to the end zone, and Dwight Clark leapt into the air to grab it with his fingertips. “The catch” got the 49ers a touchdown, which gave them the win over America’s Team. They also went on to win the Super Bowl that year and went on to win three other Super Bowl’s that decade. As I read a bit more about the 49ers and their impact on Brady, I found an article by Christian D’Andrea that ran on SBnation.com in 2016 right after Brady played the 49ers for the first time in San Francisco. (It had taken so long for Brady to make an appearance in 49er-country because the first time the Patriots made it there while he was quarterback, he was out, recovering from ACL surgery.) In the article, Brady describes his love of the 49ers as a child and how his mom let him miss school to attend Super Bowl rallies and to bang pots and pans on the El Camino Real when the 49ers won. There was something about all of this background information that, to me, seemed incredibly important to who Tom Brady has become. When Tom Brady attended the 1981 NFC Championship game, he was four years old. Four years old seems like the perfect age to be standing in a crowded football stadium with the understanding your team is trailing. And imagine how excitement would strike this little four- year-old as he watched the pass, the catch, and felt the wave of excitement in the stands strike him like a lightning bolt. And from this catch, things took off for the 49ers, and this four year-old got to feel like he was there when it all started. I didn’t read about how this made Tom Brady feel, but I’m guessing that each 49er-Super-Bowl win gave Tom Brady a little hope to know that he and Joe Montana stood under the same piece of sky. It may have even made him believe he could really make it big one day. Though we won’t all find the sort of success Dwight Eisenhower and Tom Brady have found, we all deserve to have a dream about it. And as adults, we should all be allowing the kids in our lives to dream big, too. Certainly, by age 37, I have realized that the chances of my holding the office of president are quite slim, bit I wouldn’t give back one second where I felt it was a possibility. Those dreams helped me to reach out with a little extra confidence while I was going to school and even in my first couple years in the classroom as a teacher. And who knows what little kid was sitting on his couch tonight cheering for Nick Foles and singing “Fly Eagles Fly” as the Philadelphia Eagles soundly defeated Tom Brady. Maybe tonight’s win will be a pivotal moment for a little girl who now believes that underdogs have a shot because the Eagles came through in the fourth quarter to secure a win. Dreams don’t guarantee our success; that is true. However, living without dreams is hardly a recipe for success. Hold onto your dreams, but even more, show the kiddos in your patch of world that you believe in breathing life into their dreams.

Dreams Langston Hughes, 1902 - 1967 Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.