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The Castle Trujillo
To dream the impossible dream is to climb to the Castle at the highest point of Trujillo. The castle and a small walled city await you. We are cycling through the "La Mancha" area, made famous by the play Man of La Mancha and featuring the song "To Dream the Impossible Dream." Today I looked and looked but did not see Don Quixote or any tilting windmills, but I did begin to think deep philosophical thoughts about dreams and goals and the effort it takes to reach them.
I'm sure that there are a few of you reading this blog who wish you were cycling through Europe with us. There are probably even more of you who wonder what's gotten into us "gringos locos." But really there is no difference between the two groups of people -- we all have dreams; they may differ, but we all have goals we'd like to reach. Cervantes, of course, would point out that sometimes those dreams are just that, dreams that will never be attained. But it is my belief that it is those dreams that drive us to a higher plane, a plane beyond the mundane day to day existence.
Unfortunately, American education has had a negative impact on goal setting and goal reaching. In hopes of improving the self esteem of our children, we have actually stunted their experiential growth. We praise them for what I believe should be expected behaviors. Thus, they hesitate to step out of their comfort zones. They are lauded for average accomplishments and often fail to set their sights any higher.
I know, this is getting much too deep for a cycling blog, but I have often wondered what makes us hop on our bicycles and climb up hills, sleep in a tent, and struggle to communicate with those who speak another language. What is the drive? One author I read recently noted that our day to day existence is pretty stress free -- we know where we are going to sleep each night and what we are going to eat each day. We no longer experience "survival stress," a stress that our bodies actually crave. It is that stress that forces us to grow.
Bill and I observed the benefits of survival stress up close and personal at Yellowstone National Park. If you remember, back in 1988 a huge forest fire consumed many, many acres of forest in that area. We went through there shortly after that and saw the devastation. Ten years or so after the fire, we biked through there again and saw that the forest had rejuvenated itself -- its was now lush with undergrowth; trees were beginning once again to rise into the sky. Park rangers told us that the forest was now healthier than it had been before the fire -- the benefits of "survival stress."
Whether the dream is "impossible" is not of concern. What is of concern is whether or not a person has the dream and the drive to make that dream a reality. So, as Bill and I bicycle over the next mountain, we strive to attain our dream. We hope that you, too, dream the impossible dream and seek to attain that dream.
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