I would like to share with you a dream I achieved last year.  Before I begin, let me take you back on how it all started about 35 years ago…

I had always been a fan of the Harlem Globetrotters. Next to Fat Albert, they were the next best thing on Saturday morning cartoons. Many of my friends had seen them live and ranted how great they were. One day I asked my parents to take me to see them because they were in town. Unfortunately my parents did not see the sense in seeing comic basketball players and they said no. I felt hurt and heartbroken and thought if I ever had kids, I would take them to share in my dream. Time progressed and as my life became occupied with work, homeownership, marriage and raising children, my dream of seeing the Harlem Globetrotters became a distant memory.

To my surprise, one Christmas my wife got the kids and I tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the Rogers Centre. They were coming to town on a Sunday in February. On the Friday night before the big event, we watched an interesting documentary about how they began in 1926 as the Savoy Big Five and how over the years they used humour to break the racial barriers that existed in the new sport of basketball. Overall, it was a great movie night that honoured the spirit of Black History month. I told the children that many of the players that played when I was young had now retired or passed away, but I would still like to take a picture of their ringmaster (the head player who orchestrates the tricks and interacts with the audience).  The ringmaster for Sunday’s game was going to be a player named “The Big Easy.” 

Sunday came and the kids and I were all excited to go. We were in the car on the way to finally experience my childhood dream when, to my shock and horror, the right front wheel started to violently shake like it was about to fall off! One detail I should share with you is that the ticket clearly specified that we have to be there by 1:15 pm and it was just a little before 12:00 pm. On average such a trip takes about 45 minutes. I pulled into a gas station only to find out that the whole wheel well was encased in ice. I quickly hacked away at the ice with an ice scraper until the wheel well was completely clear.  

Jumping back into the car I proceeded onto the highway. This time the shaking became worse and for safety reasons I pulled to the side of the highway.  I checked all the wheels to see if the lug nuts were secure; they were all tight with no evidence of ice or tampering.  It was now a little after 12:00 pm and I had a choice to make:

1) Do I give up and postpone my dream;

2) Do I take my chances and continue on; or

3) Do I find an alternative solution? 

I chose the latter; “Find an alternative solution!”

I headed back home to take our older car that had seen better days. It had always been a reliable family car, but never a race car. On average, it took about 10 minutes to warm up in the winter. I arrived back home and the kids and I climbed into the older car. We waited about eight minutes for it to warm up. It was still a bit sluggish when we set out but I didn’t have a choice; it was now or never if we were to get there on time. I remembered saying to myself, “I refuse to miss out on my dream and God I need your help to make it happen.” 

We shot out of the driveway and headed back towards the highway.  Amazingly, I was getting all green lights!  As I raced down the highway I started to see that the traffic was opening up; drivers were pulling over and I was able to part through them like the red sea. As I continued to race, to my surprise the older car was not shaking as it normally did at higher speeds; it was actually running like the Porsche Cayman I dream of owning one day. My guardian angel was working overtime.

Long story short, we arrived downtown and parked a little after 1:00 pm. The attached picture speaks the rest.

Moral of this story, when faced with adversity, do everything possible to achieve your dreams and then the universe and God will provide.

Keep moving forward and looking upward!