The Law of Attraction

"You will attract into your life -- whether wanted or unwanted -- whatever you give your energy, focus and attention to." (Jack Canfield)

My husband's friend John used to tell the story of how his uncle took 17 tries to get his driver's licence.  Finally, the tester, tired of seeing the same face over and over again, made a deal with John's uncle:  If you can park in this parking spot beside this car correctly, I'll pass you.  John's uncle desperately tried to maneuver his vehicle into the parking space, but he crashed right into the other car!  

"You will attract into your life -- whether wanted or unwanted -- whatever you give your energy, focus and attention to." (http://jackcanfield.com/utilizing-the-law-of-attraction/)  John's uncle saw himself as a failure as a driver and despite his best efforts, he couldn't shake that belief.  Some individuals, however, have turned it around, despite the odds being stacked against them.

In 1957, a young Homer Hickam was growing up in Virginia where all the boys became coal miners. His father fully expected him to follow in his footsteps as did most of his teachers.  However, Homer, spurred on by Sputnik, had a dream:  to build a rocket.  He and his three friends would toil for hours in his basement working on their creation.  One day, a wayward rocket demolished Homer's mother's fence.  The "rocket boys" were banished from the house.  Another wayward rocket ended up on the property of the coal mine.  Homer's dad banished the boys from company property.

Homer held on to his dream inspired by his hero Werner von Braun.  There was one teacher who believed in him.  She encouraged her student to enter the science fair.  Homer took his rocket to first the school, the state and the national science fairs, winning every time.  When the first man landed on the moon, Homer was part of the experience, working for NASA.  Homer invited the right people into his life with his positive attitude.  

Note:  For more information on Homer Hickam and the Rocket Boys, visit:  

1.  http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2011/10/october-sky.html

2.  Watch the film October Sky (1999)

Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) sets off a rocket in October Sky courtesy http://www.pluggedin.ca/movie-reviews/octobersky/.

John F. Kennedy's The Decision to Go to the Moon

Millions of Americans craned their necks to see the Soviet satellite Sputnik race across the ink black sky in October of 1957, marking the start of the space race.  Many more heard about the first Russian's space flight in April of 1961.  Premier Krushchev, with the accomplishment, boasted that socialism had conquered democracy.  However, on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech announcing that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, a feat that seemed next to impossible at the time.  On July 20, 1969, with Neil Armstrong's words "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Kennedy's promise came true.

Here is an excerpt from Kennedy's historic speech:

But why some say the moon?  Why choose this as a goal?  And they may ask why climb the highest mountain?  Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?  Why does Rice play Texas?  We choose to go to the moon.  We choose to go to the moon in this decade and to do other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/08/01/the-35-greatest-speeches-in-history/

Vernher Von Braun Writes Letter to Rocket Boy

"The first time I every saw Verhner Von Braun was on a black and white television set in my living room in Coalwood, West Virginia, the mining town where I was raised.  He was on the Disneyland show and he was talking with Walt Disney about the possibility of rockets going into space." 

(Homer Hickam Jr.)

It was in 1957 that "Rocket Boy" Homer Hickam first saw the satellite Sputnik arc across the ink- stained October sky, a sight that led to the dream of going to the moon.  But Homer's dream would not be realized as easily as he thought.  His father, the head miner in the town of Coalwood, Virginia, thought that his son should spend his time in the mine shaft, not building rockets that blew up his wife's rose garden fence.  Homer Hickam Sr. was not alone:  most of Coalwood thought the same way http://blog.al.com/huntsville-times-business/2012/03/homer_hickam_wernher_von_braun.html.

It would take a fellow dreamer to launch Homer's dream.  The Rocket Boy's mother spent her spare time painting a mural of Myrtle Beach on their kitchen wall, hoping to trade the black dust of Coalwood for the sea spray of the Atlantic.  When she discovered that her youngest son, Homer, wanted to build rockets for a living, she wrote a letter to his hero, Vernher Von Braun.  

Homer was shocked when he received a letter from the German rocket scientist.  Included with the letter was a photograph autographed by Von Braun.  It was all the inspiration that Homer needed. With the image of the photograph in his head, and the encouragement of his teacher Miss Riley, Homer made a rocket for the state science fair and won.  He brought the same rocket to the national science fair -- and captured first prize again.  

The same boy who blew up his mother's rose garden fence would go on to put a man on the moon only 12 years later as part of the NASA space program.  Hickam just missed meeting his hero, Von Braun, at the national science fair.  The rocket scientist did see Homer's rockets on display and reportedly said that they were "some of the best rockets he'd seen this side of Cape Canaveral".  

For more information:

1.  Read my post  http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2011/10/october-sky.html.
2.  Watch the movie October Sky (1999).
3.  Read Rocket Boys (1998) by Homer Hickam.

Vernher Von Braun talking to Walt Disney about launching rockets into space on the "Man in Space" episode circa 1950's courtesy http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun_(1912-1977).