Ambition

When we were young, we worked in fields and processing plants to make money. We detassled corn, hoed beet fields, weeded acres of soybeans, spotted potatoes on the assembly line, packed spinach.

We bussed tables and washed dishes in greasy cafes, waited tables, cooked in cafeterias. We mopped floors, scrubbed bathrooms, sorted and folded mountains of bedding, sheets and towels.

It was this work, this experience that pushed us into training schools, college, into careers. Into dreams and desires.

Now we work as teachers, nurses, computer techs, social workers; as writers, artists, and musicians. We own cars, furniture, appliances—some of us own houses, vacation condos. And we think we’ve learned something, have defined ambition:

~ A strong desire to achieve something, such as fame or power. A strong desire for success.

~ A cherished desire.

~ What one intends to do or achieve.

And still we continue to stalk ambition; seek out its truths and half-truths; its daydreams and realities. We visit castles in the sand, houses built on rock, and explore all that is in between.
Meanwhile ambition sits on a hill and plays a guitar. Listen at night and you’ll hear it singing…

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If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
--Henry David Thoreau

I'd rather be a "could-be', if I cannot be an "are';
because a "could-be" is a "maybe" who is reaching for a star.
I'd rather be a "has-been" than a "might-have-been', by far;
for a "might-have-been" has never "been", but a "has" was once an "are'.
--Milton Berle