THE DREAMER

The earth is man’s home, but temporary. Man’s existence did not start here (earth), neither will it end here. Hence there is birth and death. I compare birth and death to sleep and an awakening. Birth to a sleep in pre-existent life, and awakening to an earth life. While death is a sleep in earth life to an awakening to post-earth life.

The temporal existence seems to be the only awareness man knows of his own existence. Likely becos he is living it. His pre-earth and post-earth life he has little or no clue of, except that prescribed by scripture. Man’s approach to earth life suggest this thinking – a life lived without a purpose. Majority of mankind are engaged and stuck in the “rat race” of non-improvement in the essential facets of his existence. This induces the thinking and the believe that earth life is home, permanently. That everything begins here and ends here. That the need to strive for excellence is of little or no value and use.

But the coordinate nature of man has revealed that their is more to man’s existence than we know. That earth life indeed has a purpose and that man in divinely structured to live that purpose if he so chooses. A “significant and privilege” few, by their choice, have been able to pierce and view the infinite and see half-clearly that earth life is transitionary. That man’s earthly purpose is dual – to his maker and to his fellowmen. This significant and privilege few, both men and women, have come to be called “The Dreamers.” They are so called becos they make things happen. When they sneeze, the whole of mankind catches cold.

They have come to make earth life worth living. They’ve been able to make “the rest” see that earth life is a significant must in an infinitetisimal whole. And that man is crucial to that whole. That buried in the secret chambers of man’s soul lies his power and strength and his significance. That in that secret chambers lies the software that reveals his mission here.

The rest see the inside constitution of this significant and privilege few as different from theirs. But are they really? They seem to believe they are wired differently from the rest. But how true is that? I guess the workings of “The Dreamers” suggest this belief. There is the feeling of restlessness to get things done, to make life easy and more comfortable for others, the innate urge to conquer their enviroment using their talents and gifts. All these in such huge proportion that it is nothing short of an obsession to be different. All this is summed up in one sentence, “Life is Service.”

George Washington Carver, an African-American Botanist and inventor was born in 1864 near Diamond Grove, Missouri on the farm of Moses Carver. He was born into difficult and changing times near the end of the Civil War in America. The infant George and his mother were kidnapped by Confederate night-raiders and possibly sent away to Arkansas. Moses Carver found and reclaimed George after the war but his mother had disappeared forever. The identity of Carver's father remains unknown, although he believed his father was a slave from a neighboring farm. Moses and Susan Carver reared George and his brother as their own children. It was on the Moses' farm where George first fell in love with nature, where he earned the nickname 'The Plant Doctor' and collected in earnest all manner of rocks and plants. George spent much of his childhood wandering in the nearby woods and studying the plants. Here he formed the interests and values that determined his later life--love and understanding of nature, long morning walks in the woods spent thinking and observing.

George was a Dreamer. Between the ages of 10 and 12, it was common for boys his age those days to have a pen knive. George desired one, but could not afford one. One night, George prayed and asked for God to give him a pen knive. George went to bed. That very night he had a dream. Found himself in the family farm. In the farm was a large size water melon. In-between the water melon, sliced on one side, was a pen knife. When George woke up, he dashed off to the farm, located the water melon exactly where it was as indicated in his dream. Sliced at one end was the pen knife.

George Washington Carver spent countless hours in his laboratory dreaming out ways to make life easy for others. His dreams resulted in the creation of 325 products from peanuts, more than 100 products from sweet potatoes and hundreds more from a dozen other plants like soybeans, pecans, native to the Southern part of America than anyone else in human history.

Carver did not patent or profit from most of his products. He freely gave his discoveries to mankind. Most important was the fact that he changed the South from being a one-crop land of cotton, to being multi-crop farmlands, with farmers having hundreds of profitable uses for their new crops. "God gave them to me" he would say about his ideas, "How can I sell them to someone else?"

George Washington Carver was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Simpson College in 1928. He was an honorary member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, England. In 1923, he received the Spingarn Medal given every year by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1939, he received the Roosevelt medal for restoring southern agriculture. On July 14, 1943, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt honored Carver with a national monument dedicated to his accomplishments. The area of Carver's childhood near Diamond Grove, Missouri preserved as a park, this park was the first designated national monument to an African American in the United States.

An Epitaph on the grave of George Washington Carver reads, "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."

Before 1897, there was this believe on the planet that man cannot fly. Before then, people had dreamed of flying for many years. The United States Army was even trying to develop an airplane in 1903. But the plane would not fly . The New York Times even wrote that maybe in 1 to 10 million years they might be able to make a plane that would fly in jest.

Two men, Orville and Wilbur Wrights, popularly called “The Wright Brothers” had a dream. Their dream was to make man fly. They had been studying birds and how they fly for many years. In 1903, eight days after the US Army gave up their experiment, the dream came true. The first manned plane in human history was invented. Man flew. The benefit of air travel today? Well, measure it yourself. The Dreamers had done it again.

This are just two examples of the benefits of being a Dreamer. Can we all dream? The answer is YES! Can we all ascend to the honorable title of “The Dreamers?” The answer is, if we choose to. We lack not in latent ability, capability, internal configuration than the “The Dreamers.” They are not different than “the rest” but one; - THE WILL. All “the rest” lack is the will. But as the saying goes, “Where there is a WILL, there is a WAY! Be a Dreamer!

OJ.

Please drop your comments below.