Friday, December 5, 2008

Vivacious Visions 12/05/08

The history of thought may be summed up in these words: it is absurd by what it seeks and great by what it finds.

Paul Valery
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12 SECONDS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD


"If God had meant us to fly He would never have given us the railroads." Michael Flanders - At The Drop Of A Hat


He: "If God had meant us to fly He would have given us wings"
She: "Didn't give us wheels neither." Hume Cronyn - Foxfire


Harking back to Mr. O' Conner, my elementary school science teacher, who told me that man could never fly to the moon, I can imagine what the prejudices must have been in the late 19th, early 20th Centuries when men were actually contemplating and experimenting with machines that would enable them to fly through the air. "Man can't fly, it won't work." "It is a well known medical fact that if the human being gets too far above the earth's surface he will die." "Men don't fly. Birds fly. Bees fly. Men don't" "It is a mortal sin to build such a machine. If you try it the Lord will strike you down." "You will burn in hell if you try to fly."

"Did you hear about these two guys in Ohio who think they can build a flying machine?.....No, that they can sit in it and fly around.....They own a bicycle shop, that's all.....What do you think?.....Nah! It'll never work."

Can you imagine the feeling in the hearts of those two brothers when on that December day in North Carolina their machine actually took off, stayed up, and for 12 marvelous seconds, flew!

Now we have private planes, helicopters, intercontinental jets and ships that fly us to the moon (Mr. O' Conner), because two bicycle boys from Ohio had the ridiculous idea that they could build a flying machine. How absurd!


Note: The 105th anniversary of that flight is coming up on the 17th of this month. If you happen to be getting on board a plane on that day, tip your hat to Orville and Wilbur, and tell them I said hi.


The link to Vagabond Tales: http://db-vagabondtales.blogspot.com/



DB - Vagabond Journeys

7 comments:

Linda's World said...

Wow has it it been that long since humans have been lifting off the runways of the world? Amazing when you think about it. I see Marie is still down in the left hand corner. :(
Linda in Washington

Big Mark 243 said...

Thanks for leaving your url ... I am so there dude!!

The pursuit of the impossible is what makes life what it is. To think of some of the incredible things that have been imagined and accomplished, means that the same mircales can happen in your own life.

betty said...

I guess we should never say "never" that something can't be done; talented people have proved us wrong so many times and so many wonderful inventions have come out of that too :)

betty

Beth said...

Ah yes, the doubters. You'd think they'd have learned by now, but they never do!

Beth

How I See It said...

Thank goodness there are folks who think out of the box; otherwise we'd all be boxed in...forever.

Joyce said...

My dad used to say "Never make fun of science fiction" and boy was he right. Just think of the 'things' that have come about in the last century alone. Amazing.
Hugs, Joyce

Breezy said...

We are lucky to have people that pursue their dreams in spite of the negative reactions from others. To have that much faith in your idea and to never give up is how new discoveries and inventions come to be.