This painting is a little bit crazy.
Some people will be quick to point out that cowboys don’t ride dolphins. They’ll scoff that dolphins don’t belong in the sky. They’ll demand an explanation about the meaning of it all.
Those were the same kind of people who scoffed at the Wright Brothers for having the audacity of thinking they could build a flying machine. Humans can’t fly, they said. They don’t belong in the sky, they scoffed. They demanded an explanation for why these two, with no college education, no formal technical training, no experience working with anyone other than themselves, no friends in high places, no financial backers, no government subsidies, and little money of their own, would ever think they could achieve such an absurdity?
To be fair, for more than fifty years, many others before them served as a source of comic relief, mocked and ridiculed in the press for their delusions of grandeur and “childish” flying machines.
Somehow, and to our benefit, this did not deter Wilbur and Orville Wright.
History is filled with people criticized for being crazy.
But, as it’s been said, monuments are not built for critics and statues are not dedicated to fault-finders.
Very often, our dreams appear absurd, especially to others. And especially the big ones.
A horseless carriage?
A self-powered flying machine?
A pocket-sized device you can use to communicate with anyone in the world?
What will they think of next? A flying car? A colony on Mars? A cure for cancer?
This reminder is not reserved for the select few who change world history and have statues erected in their honor. I make a living doing what I love from my studio on the shores of Lake Michigan. Trust me, in the early days of our business, when Kim and I were living on a diet largely dependent on Hamburger Helper and couldn’t afford to run our air conditioning during the hot summer, every bit of my current life seemed far-fetched, to say the least.
Of course, you can’t count on every dream coming true.
But you can count on somebody calling you crazy for dreaming it.
That’s ok.
Keep dreaming anyway.