What is really required?

"Sometimes our best is simply not enough. We have to do what is required." - Winston Churchill

"220, 221, whatever it takes." - Michael Keaton from "Mr. Mom"

What happens when our best comes short of our goal? Or short of what is required of us? Should we quit? Should we renegotiate? Or should we say, “Hey, that’s the best I can do”?

We live in a society that no longer emphasizes personal responsibility. We are what we are. We do what we can do and no more, why should we? If we can’t measure up, is it our fault?

The idea of working to do better that our best seems passé, reserved, maybe, for those few extraordinary athletes we idolize. But not for us.

We are not Don Quixotes, fools who don’t really understand the way things really are. We are not fools, willing to tilt at windmills, fight city hall, dream impossible dreams. That’s for losers, not folks like us, folks with our feet on the ground, not with heads in the clouds. We’re not young and foolish and idealistic like we once were. We’re normal, not crazy.

I have to admit something. Every time I hear, or sing or even think about the lyrics to “The Impossible Dream,” I get teary-eyed. Still. After all these years. I have never laughed at the poor benighted fool who boldly declared himself to be Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha, even though everyone else knew he wasn’t. I have never laughed at his chivalrous love that elevated a lowly slattern to his goddess and muse. He told us why we must fight impossible odds; try to do what can’t be done, why we must do better than our best…

“…(so) my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to me rest.

And the world will be better than this, that one man, scorned and covered with scars

Still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star.”

If we wish to “lie peaceful and calm” and work so “the world will be better that this,” we may need to stretch beyond what we think (and others think) we can do. We have to do what is required of us even if our past experiences say it’s not possible.

If we are not good enough as we are, we must work to become something better. To evolve. To change.

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp - or what's a heaven for?” - Robert Browning

"220, 221, whatever it takes."