The Ivory Tower

This blog is entitled "Castles in the Sky." The phrase typically refers to lofty, unachieveable ideas: a grand building to which one cannot climb.

And maybe it's true. Maybe there are some things which we cannot do. But neither do we know our own potential, what abilities we have when we put forth our energy and our intellect to meet some self-proclaimed challenge. It is undeniable that if a child says believes he cannot be an austronaut, or another "knows" she cannot become president or prime minister, that child will never realize any such dreams. But children mature and become austronauts and presidents, phycisists and prime ministers.

We grow not only as individuals, but also as a society (increasingly, a global society). To only hope for what we believe we can have prevents us from knowing dissapointment, but it also prohibits us from unqualified success. There is more, always more.

Let's eliminate AIDS. Of course, to many it might seem impossible to completely obliterate a disease that infects 39.4 million people. But we erradicated smallpox -- and it was so prevalent that it killed 2 million people/year.

What do we have without dreams! Even if they are unachieveable, reaching for that height will let us grasp that which lies between our hopes and our assurances.