Feel Good

Reach for the stars!

It’s every generation’s charge to the next one.

You can be anything you want; do whatever you choose.

All you have to do is believe in yourself and follow your dreams!

But how often do we follow our own advice? And do we really believe it ourselves?

Do we practice what we preach? Or are we just whistling in the wind, hoping something will stick? Always looking to our children to do what we couldn’t. To do it – Life - better than we did?

Because we’re not dead yet! And as long as we’re alive, there’s still time to live out your dreams.

So is the message of The Astronaut Farmer, a 2006 movie starring Tommy Lee Jones and Virginia Madsen that I find myself fortunate to have rented on DVD the other night.

In it, Tommy Lee Jones players Charles Farmer, a man who had to give up his lifelong dream of flying into outer space in order to take care of his family. (What a choice!)

So what does he do about it? He builds a rocket – a real rocket (he was an engineer, after all) – in his barn. Only his family (and even then with reservation) believes the thing will actually fly, much less carry him safely into space and back to Earth.

It’s made him the talk of the town – and not in an admirable way.

What’s more, the closer he gets to “take-off” the more the odds stack up against him.

I won’t delve any further into the plot other than to tell you that I’m reviewing this movie in the Feel Good blog for a reason.

The acting was superb (including a killer surprise cameo I won’t spoil), the direction more than adequate. The script had a few minor logistical loopholes, but who really cares? This movie isn’t about realism.

It’s about the power of dreams, and what can happen when you hold fast to them in the face of all obstacles – from naysayers to (alleged) cold, hard facts.

And for that, this story is one I’ll repeatedly recall any time someone tries to discourage me from claiming my destiny: especially me!