I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was probably fall 1972 or 1973. The sky was grey. I love grey days. Yes, weird I know but nonetheless, the sky was grey. There was a cool breeze at my back as I stood on the edge of a 14-or-15-foot ledge overlooking a green pasture because the first frost hadn’t come yet to kill the grass. As I looked out at the scene before me, I began to build up the courage and belief that I could do anything I set my mind to. I was about 8 or 9 years old and was a rather high energy boy, to say the least. If my brothers and I were in school today within the context of current culture and medical thinking, we would be labeled ADHD. We were however, just three boys with amazingly active imaginations, imaginations that were encouraged by our father. Either way, I was about to do something no man or boy had ever done up to this point in history. I was equipped with all the necessary equipment and resources to do this amazing feat. I had plenty belief in what I was about to attempt. No, as a matter of fact, this was not going to be an attempt it was going to be an achievement that would go down in the history books and be remembered for centuries to come.

 

The wind was blowing hard enough to make my cape, that I had tied around my neck, stretch out behind me and flap softly. “I can do this. I know I can. I’ve thought it through, done all the necessary calculations, the wind is perfect, the equipment is working as it should and my belief that I can do this is rock solid, so here goes nothing.” I take a few steps back away from the ledge and off I run for about 10 feet, and I catapult my entire body off the 15-foot ledge and stretch my arms out in front of me and extend by body to where it is parallel to the ground below. For about 2 second I was flying. Yes, I was flying. “No one has ever done this before. I have just made history! The first human to fly, just like superman!” I told myself. Then the hard taskmaster of gravity jarred me back to what was really happening. I wasn’t flying at all; I was falling, falling fast to the ground below me. The lush dark green grass became a mass of green confusion as I hit, full body extended, hard on the earth beneath me. Wham! Bam! Boom! I hit so hard. So hard that for the first time in my very young life I had the breath knocked out of me. At first, I thought I had literally knocked the life out of me, and I was dying. My brothers ran over to check on me and saw what I had done and, I think, were either helping me get my life back or laughing uncontrollably at me. At that time, in this whole endeavor my mind wasn’t functioning at full capacity, so I’m not sure. Knowing my older brothers, they were probably laughing at me. Either way, my breath finally came back to me. I stood up, dusted myself off and thought to myself. “Well, Todd, you obviously didn’t believe hard enough, so let’s do this again, and believe harder”. With that, I repeated the whole episode again and unfortunately and to my dismay the same results were had.

 

I was and have always been a dreamer. Sometime results are a little fuzzy to say the least. But I am still dreaming. Here are a couple of question I want to pose for you to ask yourself. Are you still a dreamer? And where have all the dreamers gone?

 

America was built on dreams. Dreams of a better life. Dreams of changing the world. Dreams of achievement. Dreams on helping others. Dreams that were not just for their own gratification and exploitation.

 

Some of the greatest inventions that have changed the world have come from American dreamers. I believe people from around the world want to come to America is because they have the opportunity to pursue their dreams. America may not be what she used to be but the one thing that she still is; she is the land of opportunity.

 

I believe one of the reasons that people in general dream, invent, create, construct, build, produce, or manufacture is their divine mind. “What do you mean by that”? You might ask. In the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebel against God and disobeyed Him they “died” that day, it was obviously a spiritual death and that separated them from God. Then they were kicked out of the garden, for their own good, not merely a punishment from God. The truth that Satan left out when he tempted them saying that they would become like God if they ate from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was that what they would become like Satan having the propensity to commit the most vial and wicked acts that could ever be imagined. The silver lining in all of this, if you can believe there is, is this; God didn’t take away their divine mind. Humanity still has an ability to create, build, design, invent, etc. Satan doesn’t have the ability to create. He only has an ability to pervert, twist, deceive, and manipulate. That is one of the many reasons he hates and despises us so.