The Envelope

Nerves, trepidation, butterflies.

Is it the measure of a person to know their limitations, touch the edge of the envelope and excel within those confines?

Or it is better to push harder, try again and strive to achieve beyond your means -- even though failure is more likely than not?

History is sprinkled with those men and women who have gone beyond the barriers and achieved greatness. It is also littered with those souls who reached farther than they could grasp and went down in flames.

To paraphrase: is it better to have tried and lost than to never have tried at all?

Individual judgment is the only referee to settle this conflict. We each must make the decision to press on in our personal battlefields or hold on to the gains we've made with an eye toward the greater goal.

Those who decide that there are goals that can and should be reached are often called dreamers, fools, risk-takers and sometimes, just foolish. However, they are also known as leaders, pioneers, and sometimes, visionaries.

What is the guide? Where is the dividing line between fool and pioneer?

And what is lost when we can't see the line at all? Risk and reward are ethereal entities that only history can dole out.

Red lever, blue lever or no lever at all.

Choices are made and lives go on. But in the multitude of parallel universes, one world's dreamer is another world's leader.

Only history can make that determination. However, we can make the choices.

For me, I choose to take the risks. Nothing ventured and nothing gained. I'm never satisfied with what I have accomplished, but I am happy with the choices I've made.

Where do you fall? And what are you going to do about it?

"We can pave new roads with the cold creed stones, wind them through the pines" -- Foo Fighters

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