Mar 5, 2012
“Dream baby dream … ”
Dateline: Where Dreams Come True
Let’s dance.
Get up off your chair.
Stop reading this, it can wait.
Dance.
Find your wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend … and dance.
Dance like Travolta in the movie, “Michael.”
Dance like Kevin Bacon in the movie, “Footloose.”
I’m dancing to the music of Solomon Burke … “Down in the Valley,” right now in my Hampton Hotel room … sorry Room 212 down below me. Got my socks on, boxers, sleeping T-shirt … and my iPod.
Let’s dance.
I’m line dancing alone in my boxers for joy.
I’m dancing because you know what, you know what working stiffs all over this crazy country of ours.
I’m dancing alone because, dreams … working stiff dreams … do come true.
Dance America.
Dance.
Because no matter what you read, no matter what you are told … the American dream comes true … comes GOSH DARN TRUE.
May take some time, but dream it, work it, work your buttocks off, say your prayers, kiss your loved ones and hold true to your dreams, hold true to your hope, to your love, to your faith, to your laughter…and guess what…
… possible is actually POSSIBLE!
Just ask Elite angler, Greg Vinson.
” … come on and dream baby dream … ”
It was 646 days ago that I sat down with Greg Vinson and wrote the story … “Someday.”
In that story Greg told me this, “db someday … someday … I’m going to be Angler of the Year … someday I will compete in the Bassmaster Classic … someday … ”
Greg spoke of how he was about to quit, had to quit the B.A.S.S Elite series, couldn’t afford it because two months to the DAY that his entry fees were due, to months to that day … his wife Stephanie lost her job … and they needed the money and couldn’t send it in.
“Then the worst day of my life … the day the money is due … and we can’t send it … can’t send it … ”
At that point it looked like someday would never come.
Then the phone rang, and on the morning he was about to call B.A.S.S. and bow out, bow out on his dream … on the other end of the phone … a job offer for his wife.
You know the rest.
” … keep the fire burning … ”
You don’t know this though. Day Two, Greg is in second place a pound or so behind the leader … the dude comes into the Media Room and after standing up front for several minutes surrounded by a hoard of reporters I go up to him to offer congratulations on the day … and this is what he says to me, pretty darn near exact but I’m going to use the quote marks anyway.
“db check this out … ”
And he pulls out his phone, hits the photo library button, and while I’m expecting to see some kind of big fish … I find myself looking at a photo of his 3-week-old son, Gaige William Vinson.
His real dream.
Faith. Family. Fishing.
Now don’t get me wrong … we are not about to bring about world peace, end hunger, or have the Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl here, we just working stiffs with dreams.
But it is the working man and the working woman with dreams who started this country. It is on our backs, it is in our dreams, the future of this country.
Which is why we need to dance for the Greg Vinson story, and for all the other stories of those who cross the Bassmaster Classic stage.
Comes the stage of dreams.
The Classic is about catching fish.
The Classic is about catching dreams.
And every time a dream is caught, we need to dance.
Don’t matter none, your stage.
What matters is that you know you have a stage.
That, here, on this soil, on these lakes and rivers, a stage waits for you.
Dream Baby Dream.
And to your dreams…
… hold true.
Let’s dance.
” … we gotta keep the light burning.”
Dream Baby Dream
Bruce Springsteen
