"Go on, now, throw your hat in the ring
and if you get knocked down, get up and do it again."
I don’t know how to ride a bike. My children tried to teach me, but I ran into a parked car on our dead end street so I pretty much gave up. I did learn, however, that you tend to end up going in the direction where you are looking.
Ann: John?
John McCain: Yes, Annie, you got that right. Sorry to wake you, but when I’m up and rarin’ to go, I like a little company, and I want you to get this down.
Too many folks these days are looking in the wrong direction, that is, right down at the ground. It’s a wonder you all don’t trip over your own feet when you can't see further than your own toes.
My friends, that is no way to live. And it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy anyway. Now is the time to look toward what we want to happen, what will open our hearts and create a better life for our children. We aren’t limited to the little square of real estate that our feet are planted on. There is a great big wonderful world out there if we will realize that we can have a part in creating it.
I gotta say I laughed when I heard about Annie’s bike trip into the parked car, but let’s not do that again. No one likes the feeling of being hog tied to one little square of terra firma and then toppling over into certain disaster.
Go on, now, throw your hat in the ring and if you get knocked down, get up and do it again. Let’s get out there and have some fun and one way or another it will turn out alright.
Ann: Is that a prediction?
John: No, it’s a guarantee - but maybe not just in the way some folks would like. I’m not saying that corruption will end and that the good guys will triumph at every turn. I’m saying that if you set your gaze on the horizon where the sun comes up, you will bask in that light, and it will reflect on everyone around you until they too start looking in that direction. Anything else is voluntary slavery.
Yes, I know it looks dark sometimes. You will allow that I had some experience of dark in my life. But whether or not I got out of the Hanoi Hilton, I had the choice to create some light, and I was lucky enough to have help from my friends, my better angels, and those beings whose acquaintance I would never have made if I hadn’t looked up while I was in that hell hole.
It’s a new day every day. Make it count.
October 21, 2020