Somewhere along the way in my childhood, somebody told me I can do anything I decide to do. "Anything you put your mind to, you can accomplish," this wise person told me. I honestly have no idea whether it was a single person or many people, or maybe it was just an idea that I pieced together from being told similar things over a long period of time. Regardless of how it came to be, I have realized the idea, plain and simple, became part of my system of beliefs. I never really thought about it consciously, and I never questioned it. It has probably been the source of motivation at times when I was about to embark on a particularly challenging task. I might start to feel sorry for myself, thinking I'm not smart enough or not strong enough to do something, and I would hear a voice in my head saying, "Kristy, you can do it! Anything you decide to do, you can do it!"
The reason I've thought of this is because of the recent presidential election. For the first time in our nation's history, a black person has been elected to hold the highest office in our government. His race might have given Barack Obama a tougher row to hoe than if he had not been of a minority race. But in addition to that, he was a total newcomer to the national political scene -- his first real political appearance was just four years ago at the Democratic convention, and ever since then he's worked his butt off to say what he believes and get people to join in his cause. Whether we agree with him politically or not, his accomplishment is striking from a sense of sheer willpower and determination! I hope many more parents, who may not have thought to do so before, will tell their children they can grow up to be president if they decide to because of what has happened in front of us these last few months.
But this brings up the sticking point. You see, there are many wonderful things that children might one day grow up to do. However, it is simply impossible that one particular child can grow up to do absolutely anything he chooses. I'll choose an absurd example for illustration. Let's say I decided when I was young that I wanted to grow up to play professional basketball in the NBA. (Not the W-NBA, mind you. Just the NBA.) Let's say I made up my mind that was what I wanted to do, and I wasn't going to let anybody tell me I couldn't do it. Let's say I chose to ignore the fact that I was a female not a male and that I was only 5'2" and not 6'2" or taller. Obviously, this would be a ridiculous direction to choose for my life, because it would completely ignore the qualities with which I was born. I would stand only the most minuscule chance of success, and even if I did somehow attain success (you know, through a sex change operation or by lobbying to be permitted to play despite my gender, plus honing my physical skills so determinedly that I could somehow compete with people far, far larger than myself), the price I would have had to pay would have been that my life was consumed by achieving the goal, and I would have had little space for anything else.
Now, what does this have to do with anything? Well, here's what. My life is filled with tradeoffs and limitations. To start with the obvious, there are only so many minutes in a day, so I'm limited by time for sure. I'm also limited by the genetic makeup of my body. There are some things I can't do. Not that they are literally, completely, totally impossible, but that they are so very unlikely, and the cost of attaining them would be so ridiculously high, that they are effectively out of reach. For better or worse. Or. Wait. Maybe just for better.
Aren't we all here for a reason? Don't we all, regardless of our belief system, ultimately believe that we have a *purpose*? We might believe it's pre-ordained for us with great specificity, or we might believe we make it ourselves by our daily choices. Either way, there are some things we could choose to do that make more sense -- do more good -- than others. *Those* are the things we should be telling our children they can do if they put their minds to it, despite all the odds!
This is not to say that I believe the things we were "meant to do" are the things that are easy for us. To the contrary! I believe determination and hard work and resilience are critical to accomplishing anything of real value. But, to develop a belief we can do anything we decide to do...well...that's pretty close to believing we're God and not human. Isn't it? (And as a side note, my fellow Christians out there who are aghast because you think I don't believe Luke 1:36-37, I most assuredly do, and I'm happy to explain why nothing I'm saying here contradicts it. You can email me if you really want to hear about that.)
Anyway, what's got me all worked up is that there are psychological repercussions to this sneaky little belief I somehow caught like a virus. If ever there is something I can't do (and that situation arises regularly since I am, in fact, human and I live a finite physical existence), the voice in my head turns the logic around and says, "If you really wanted to do this, you could do it. You must not have made up your mind enough. You've failed." Well, little voice, you might seem right, but you're actually very wrong.