Against All Odds, the Dream Takes Flight

by Beverly Ingle

Liv Fun: Vol 1 – Issue 4

She was inimitable, an audacious female in an era that didn’t quite know what to do with such moxie. She dared to dream without limits, at once challenging convention and herself. Her boldest dream led to one of the biggest mysteries in aviation: What happened to bring about the untimely end of her fateful attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world? We may never find out how far — literally — Amelia Earhart’s dream took her. Does that even matter?

The lingering mystery of Earhart’s disappearance sparked another improbable quest, this one imagined by the people behind The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR): Ric Gillespie, the group’s founder and expedition leader, and Gillespie’s wife, Pat Thrasher, who serves as the group’s president.

Earlier this year, TIGHAR led a $2.2-million expedition that initially failed to get the conclusive evidence that it sought about Earhart’s disappearance. “As is usually the case with fieldwork, we’re coming home with more questions than answers,” the group said in a statement posted on its website. “We are, of course, disappointed that we did not make a dramatic and conclusive discovery, but we are undaunted in our commitment to keep searching out and assembling the pieces of the Earhart puzzle.”

Two impossible dreams — Earhart’s and TIGHAR’S — quite possibly now could be inextricably linked through recent events, effectively serving as legendary examples of doggedly chasing a dream despite high odds against success, the skepticism of others, and seemingly all logic.

After all, a dream and logic never have been bedfellows.

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Liv Fun

by Leisure Care
Winter 2012
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Against All Odds, the Dream Takes Flight 
by Beverly Ingle

She was inimitable, an audacious female in an era that didn’t quite know what to do with such moxie. She dared to dream without limits, at once challenging convention and herself.
Read More

Cashing Out of the American Dream
by Max Wells

The dream is dead. Or at least on life support. I am not alone in recognizing today’s threats to the American Dream, articulated in 1931 by historian James Adams: “Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” 
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Zanzibar: The Name Casts a Spell
by Pam Mandel

It took about eight weeks to prepare for my trip to East Africa. I had to send my passport off for a visa and get a lot of shots. There were a few odds and ends that I needed. Extra-strength bug repellent. Sunscreen. The right hat; one that would not blow off in the safari rig. While running these errands, I’d tell people what I was up to and where I was going. A flight to Nairobi. Over land into Tanzania. Then, for the last few days of the trip, Zanzibar.
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