Enough Whining Already...

When did we become such a society of whiners and ingrates? We used to be country that solved problems with humor and conquered big, grand things like air and space flight with pride and industry. We used to have pride in our accomplishments. But now we are just a bunch of whiners.

Maybe my frustration comes from the book I am reading right now - The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. It is the story of how two young men decided to conquer the problem of flying. Not for any other reason than to solve the problem. Not for personal aggrandizement or out of any kind of arrogance. Certainly they did not do it for personal wealth though they were smart enough to insist on being the sole owners of their patent. They did it for the shear desire to solve a problem that most said could not be solved. And they did by starting with the basics - studying and observing birds.

So on the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th year of the 20th Century (August 8, 1908) in a field in Le Mans, France, they proved to the world that they had indeed conquered the skies with motorized, controllable airflight. All of the people who said it couldn't be done were amazed at what they witnessed that day. And these two men changed the world forever.

Wilbur and Orville Wright were from a humble home and modest means in Dayton, Ohio. They spent their childhood days studying and building stuff. Their father was a modest travelling minister who raise his children (4 boys and 1 girl) to be curious about everything. They did not have fancy furniture or clothes, but their father filled their house with books. He allowed his children to explore the world through books and stretch their intellects without limits. Interestingly, the only one of the Wright children to attend college was the daugher, Katherine who actually became the first American woman to fly in an airplane.

Many, many were trying to solve this problem. You could say there was a race on to be the first. The US government had paid $20,000 for Samuel P. Langley to build and test his much publicized glider, but on December 8, 1903 with thousands to watch, he failed miserably. But only 10 days later (December 17, 1903) on a lonely beach in Kitty Hawk, NC, after thousand of tests, failures, re-building, re-engineering, and in front of a few witnesses, Wilber and Orville proved to themselves that they had conquered controlled glider flight. And they did without fanfare and for just a $1000 of their own funds earned from their Dayton bicycle shop, what Langley could not with government funds.

It is most inpiring biography written by a most inpiring biographer and I highly recommend the book to read if for no other reason for a much-needed dose of inpiration in what humans can accomplish through ingenuity and hard work.

Sadly, what we have in November of 2015 are Yale and Missouri University whiners who can't get too many safe spaces to whine. But I know that there are kids out there just ike Wilbur and Orville who will solve the next big problem without fanfare just for the shear pleasure of conquer a problem that everyone said was unconquerable.