BEING TUTORED UNDER A TREE ON A RAINY SUMMER DAY

For many, humanity is the story of great men and women in epic action. The question that eventually sneaks in is: But did they make history or did history make them? The best answer surely is: A combination of each. It is, however, instructive just how many greats began so small.

The classic narrative of the outsider of modest origins emerging from nowhere to help change everywhere. Moses ...Jesus...Michelangelo...Joan of Arc...Napoleon...Lincoln...Twain...Lenin...Hitler...John Paul...Reagan. In our case it's simply the American Dream -- born on the frontier, nourished in Hollywood -- that by gosh anyone can make it.

Try this when you get the chance.

Find a spot of lawn under a thick tree on a soft rainy summer afternoon. Let the moment seep into your consciousness and become your tutor. Now what do you see and feel out here? Wet...? Wrong answer! You feel in touch and in tune with nature. A green panorama of July heat squeezing its teardrops upon humanity, whispering the eternal truth: I am here at the command of my creator just as each of you is here at the command of my skies and winds and rains. Beneath me, you are each the very same. Neither rich nor poor; neither white nor black; neither Christian nor Muslim; neither believer nor non-believer.

If you listen very very carefully, the whisper will go on to advise you all the king's horses and all the king's men make not an iota of difference when it comes to your place in this daily panorama. Your place is like everyone else's place. It is your part in the panorama that is different. The part you dream to have.

History's outsiders must have dreamed bigger and bolder dreams than most. Visions? callings? destiny? Who can say with certainty. There are those today who would challenge such untestable possibilities, for they study instead our genes, our chemicals, our evolutionary compulsions in order to crack the codes and conquer the questions. Their search is important, their dreams exciting.

Wait a minute...their dreams? Yes. They too dream under trees about better knowing and changing their world. Which makes you wonder if they believe their own large dreams are simply the product of small genes and chemicals. Or are they. like those before them, the product of something outside their laboratories.