The possible is always a function of the impossible
People said it was impossible to fly like a bird but one visionary said “why not try?”
To that end,
they discovered it was possible to invent a kite, and a balloon, and even a parachute
until eventually, on a remote beach in Kitty Hawk
two brothers, bike mechanics, made what looked so impossible became possible,
because the possible is a function of the impossible.
People said that they could never reach the moon but poets said, at least we might imagine what we cannot do.
To that end,
they wrote novels about the face in the moon and cheese and lunatics, and space wars and setting up a satellite city circling the sky,
until eventually a man called Armstrong leapt from the lunar landing module to make one small step, one giant leap.
What looked so impossible and only a dream became real
because the possible is always a function of the impossible.
People said that we would never invent a cure for cancer,
but scientists said that cannot be the final answer, so “why not try?”
To that end,
They dared to imagine a world where they already had,
and discovered along the way, cures and treatments and vaccines for flu and polio and for TB,
while a team mapped the genome and the DNA sequence.
What once seemed so utterly beyond what they thought was achievable
is something we know today will become possible tomorrow,
because one day along the way, they made a way,
and it was a way that was leading them on,
into what their not-knowing already knew,
that the possible is always a function of the impossible.
Unless mankind dared to fly when they knew it was impossible,
Unless womenkind dared to demand a vote, when they knew that no one would give them a chance,
Unless slaves dared to imagine fighting to win their freedom,
when all they had was their chains,
There would have been no progress of the human spirit.
Unless leaders dare to do the unthinkable,
and risk moving beyond the outer limits of their certainty,
Challenge the powers that be into a new becoming
and invent a new imagination for the territory of the possible,
Then change cannot happen.
Unless we all embark on the hazardous journey to go,
over the horizon of all that we can see, or feel, or know,
we humans would never have left our caves or risen from our graves.
The human race would still be locked inside prisons of impossibility,
en-darkened by the decisions of our self imposed fears.
We must always embrace the impossible
We must always reach out to solve the insoluble
We must always stretch our certainty beyond what’s recognizable,
because
The possible is always a function of the impossible.
(To Ahmed July 29th 2021)
Paul Costello
