THE BOY WITH THE DREAM
“Once there was a little boy,” my grandfather began as us children gathered round, “who wanted more than anything to be able to fly. Oh, the dreams he had! He would fly up, up, above the treetops, and look down on all the little children playing in little yards by little houses…”
“He didn’t really, did he, Grampa?”
“No, Janie, he’s dreaming. Where was I? Oh, yes. The little boy tried everything he could think of to fly. He tried flapping his arms, jumping up into the air, even whistling like the birds do! But still he couldn’t fly.
“As the boy got older, he studied the birds as they flew by. He looked at the shape of their wings, and the way they moved when they were going up and when they were going down. He found a big cardboard box and cut out two great big wings. He even took all the feathers from his pillow and glued them on, just in case it was the feathers that made the birds fly. Then he put on his wings and flapped and flapped.
“But still he couldn’t fly. When his parents saw what he had done to his pillow, he had to clean it all up and put his wings away. He forgot all about them until he was much older, when he began to think about cars. He thought about how cars need engines to move. He thought about how he wanted to fly as fast as a car through the sky. And he thought about how an engine could help him fly.
“So the boy took the engine from a lawn mower and attached it to his wings. He pulled the cord and Vvruumm! he started moving! But all he did was spin round and round in circles, until it ran out of gas. Well, of course the boy was very disappointed. He vowed never to have anything more to do with flying, and he threw his wings away.
“Soon the boy became a young man and had many other things on his mind. He began to think about college, and about what he wanted to be. He spent a lot of time with his friends, and not very much time daydreaming. But he couldn’t forget his dream forever. Sometimes he would stop and look up at the birds gliding in the air, and just for a moment imagine how tiny he must look to them.
“Then it was time for the young man to go to college and learn about a career. His mother said he should be a doctor. His father said he should be an engineer. His friends said he should be an astronaut. But the young man looked at the sky and watched an airplane chasing the birds and he said ‘I’m going to become a pilot.’ And he did.”
My grandfather stopped and looked at us closely. “There’s a lot to be learned from this story about the boy and his dream. I want you to think about it. Now go out and play.”
So we all ran outside to play. The boys started buzzing around the yard with their arms outstretched like wings, while the girls sat by the house and watched the boys. And my grandfather sat on the porch, smiling and nodding his head.
