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I had a dream. I was a iron worker in mammoth steel plant. I don’t even know if mammoth can even to begin to describe the size of it. As I walked through the plant which was thousands of floors high a slightly graded floor spiraled the outside of the plant. As you walk down the grade millions of workers could be found at their separate stations.
The building was of steel and concrete construction which held an elevator shaft in the middle of it. Getting lost in this building was easily done unless you wanted to spend the rest of the day getting to the bottom parking lot were you car was located. I seen a worker getting into the elevator but it was not a normal elevator but an elevator in which you laid on your back. In order to get down to the bottom floor in a timely manner the shaft was not made for comforts it did not contain solid walls and floor but a grated design so there would be less friction going at high speeds. The result was in mild climate by the time you reached the bottom you had ice crystals formed all over your body.
I think what caught my imagination the most was the millions of workers at the plant. It is hard for me to describe millions because it is a term we do not see every day in action. You can picture a million dollars but the chance you will see a million of anything in your lifetime is like hitting the lottery even then by hitting the lottery you are not granted you will see a million dollars at once. So seeing a million of anything and experiencing a million of anything at once rarely happens but on paper.
When I reached the bottom there was the biggest oil driller I have ever seen it was easily thousands of times bigger than a normal oil driller. I asked an old man how can an oil rig of this size can be located at the bottom of plant without disturbing the footers of the plant. He told me that the rig actually gave more support to the whole structure while running. Although this was just a dream I would not count on that to be truth but what caught my eye was that old man.
The old man, as the pistons come up and down in a huge arcing motion there was a small pathway that was located going through the oil rig. He timed it just right and was able to walk through as the steel came swinging down within inches away from his body. A poorly timed decision could have easily fated him with the surety of death.
The dream left me with a feeling of being small. The first thing that came to mind in my waking was the people at the higher end of the ladder. Meaning, the people in charge of those workers makes up just a small percentage of our society. They often make decisions that affect millions of workers. That in itself again could make you seem small and not being able to do anything but to just do our job and keep quite.
The second thing that came to mind is inspiration. That inspiration is lacking in many hard working Americans. They feel they can’t actually do something because they perceive they are alone. They are left with the feeling that they can’t change it, hopelessness, but just to be a product of it. It is in that act of inspiration that has shaped some better aspects of society at large, which improved our way of life as a whole. I guess what I am trying to say by feeling small and hopeless can we actually bring about that inspiration or should I say by the accepting that inspiration can we begin to do something that can change the world at large.
If you look at Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, Harriet Tubman, Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt, George Washington, Sandra Day O'Connor these men and women are considered some of the biggest patriots that have ever touched our lives. Some of these men and women also suffered from severe depression as well. I always wondered why they would be depressed but I soon came to the conclusion to have humility, to feel small, to feel worthless but on the eve of that depression to attain an awakening of inspiration. The feeling we can move mountains if we are humbled enough to act on it. I would say that something’s in life are not realized enough by each and every one of us, in that we do not realize these men and women are cut from the same stone as you or I. In that we have the ability to act on the eve of our own roller coaster ride of depression to inspire millions.
The old man in my dream represented the Americans, the patriots that take chances in their life not only to better their life but more importantly to better the lives of others. To think we can be cut from the same stone as patriots is a very powerful message. We do not need to hand over our lives over in order for it to happen either it starts in small steps like knowing your vote counts, knowing your letters to your representatives count. If millions would write their representatives I think we would be living in an all together different society than we are. If there is so much power in a single women or a single man imagine the power in standing together as a nation. United we stand divided we fall.
The elevator ride represented the time span of our lives. The realization that knowing our life is short we can make a difference.