The Bold- Crissy field
Last month I moved from the East Bay to San Francisco. What a change. In San Francisco, there are so many things to do and so many places to see. One of my favorite parts about the city is the history. On every block, there is something new to be learned.
I get made fun of sometimes because I am the annoying guy that reads the plaques everywhere I go. If there is a sign or a monument, the chances are high that I’m going to stop to read it. I don’t know if it is a learned behavior from my parents or a general curiosity, but I just can’t stop.
A few Sundays back I had a free few hours, so I decided to go for a quick walk around the neighborhood. However, things didn’t quite go as planned. I ended up being gone for almost 3 hours, walking a lot further than I had planned.
As I was walking, I came up to a field called Crissy Field. It gets its name from Major Dana Crissy, an early 19th-century pilot. In my typical fashion, I read the plaque about Dana’s life and was blown away. Dana was a pilot who was part of the group of 61 pilots who in 1919 participated in the Air Force’s Endurance Test, to fly across the United States. The planes back then were not what we have today. They were open cockpit and not nearly as refined. The Wright brother’s first flight had been only about 15 years earlier.
On the first day of the flight, Crissy’s plane crashed in Salt Lake City, and he and his co-pilot both did not survive.
I have always been so impressed by those that have pushed the limits of what is possible. Those who have taken risks. People like Dana Crissy, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Robert Peary.
The world is not built by those that chose to wait. The world is built by those that go out and take risks. Those that go off into uncharted territory, those that build the things that have not been built. The movers and shakers of the world do not follow the path of everyone else. They create their own path and the future follows them. Had it not been for those that have pushed the world forward, we would not have the life and comfort that we have today. It is thanks to the sacrifice of the people like Dana Crissy, that we are able to experience transcontinental flight, without having to fear dying.
Take risks.