Why impossible?  I ask myself as 11:46 shows on the countdown timer.  Once the impossible thing is done it is shown to be clearly possible.  There are a million examples, like enormous, heavy hunks of metal flying through the air filled with people and luggage.  A video phone in your pocket.

Technology is what comes to mind first, but the impossible things I’m thinking about are massive changes inside individual hearts, inside our collective heart.   We are raised inculcated with certain truths, facts about us and the world that seem immutable.  I argued with my father for decades over whether people can fundamentally change themselves.  I believe we can, and don’t discount how difficult and sometimes painful it is.   My father always argued that we can change only the superficial parts, our outward reactions perhaps.   To him, the impossibility of healing deep wounds was a psychological fact.  At the very end, with his last breaths, he regretted that he’d fought me all those years instead of doing the hard work to have a more joyful, generous, loving life.

I set out to do something impossible, set up a network of children’s animation workshops.  To inspire children to show adults what children can do– to inspire change in the way things are done in schools, in our ass-backwards educational system.  I take my inspiration in this from people like Sugata Mitra, Ken Robinson, Seth Godin, Vandana Shiva, people I’d never even heard about six months ago.   I take courage from discovering new things that continue to help me as I go.

Is what I’m trying to do impossible?  I can’t concede that, though the odds against me are pretty impressive.  Is it impossible for one person to do alone?  Yes, that is clearly impossible.  So to gather a small group to help me push the project ahead I have to not only be inspired, I have to inspire them.  I cannot complain, I can’t hesitate, must be calm and confident at all times.  Hard!  As annoying as it may be when a kid screeches into a microphone with headphones on, thrilled to be hearing the echo in his voice, I have to show no annoyance, realize the bigger picture is about letting children feel these thrills.   Easier with children, to keep this philosophical stance.  It is the adults.  Man, the adults are the hard part.