The Nina and Santa Maria, replicas of course, were in the area over the weekend.

Coercing two high school freshmen, who are also grand daughters, to go with us, we drove the short half hour to the river town on the Ohio where the ships were moored.

Tiny little things they were.

Like Disney rides in Pirates Cove; from a distance they looked like the two-quarter rides for kids on the sidewalks outside of grocery stores. Or like part of a backyard play set for children.

One of the original ones that Columbus sailed, survived a hurricane at sea. One carried 120 passengers. I counted fifty of us yesterday who were crowded unto the deck. Claustrophobia started to set in. I read that it took over a month to get from Portugal to Hispaniola. A month crammed into quarters that today would hold...five people maybe ten.

Columbus' dream of finding a way to the orient by sailing west was not shared by many. It took seven long years for him to gain enough support to start his journey. And even then he did not get to the orient by sailing west but discovered a New World.

Hurrah for Columbus.

Here's what I think about this. People today have dreams but we live in a society that sometimes does not value one person's dream. We discount what we do not share and laugh at those who against all reason think outside the box. Pressure from without mounts and sometimes overcomes the dreamer and that dream is put aside, trampled or stuffed deep inside in order for the dreamer to 'fit in' and be considered 'normal' and sometimes in order for friends and family members not to be embarrassed.

I wonder what we have lost by not encouraging outrageous dreams.

And that's what I think about it.