What is possible?

What is the moment when something truly becomes possible? Is it when that thing itself is done or when it gets put in motion? And why do certain things seem more impossible than others? Is it because they have been denied for so long, pushed down into the depths so far that it would take ages to bring them back into light. I’m not sure, I’m not even sure if Nelson Mandela is sure of this. There are some things that will always be impossible, like people trying to fly with their arms, so how do we delineate between what seems like it will always be impossible and what will in fact always be impossible? I do not like the word “seem.” It places the fate of a particular situation or concept in the hands of the one looking upon it. Some are less objective than others. I’m sure when segregation was legally outlawed some people believed this to be impossible, on both sides. On one hand, some had hope in the fact that it was impossible, and others placed a deep dread and fear on this same fact. So how do we effectively and objectively classify something as seeming impossible? It is not completely possible. Something may seem impossible to one group of people but another group could see the fire burning in those who wish to stop it, and know that this fire will never go out and therefore they know that this thing does not in fact seem impossible. Hope is what separates what seems from what is. Things will not seem as impossible or hard to accomplish as they may be if one simply has hope for what is to come and what is. Mandela did many “impossible” things in his life time, but he would not have been able to do these things if he thought that they seemed impossible to him. He recognized the very real possibility that those things were not in fact impossible. So maybe he is referring to the other in saying that it seems impossible. Those on the outside will never know if something is actually impossible because they are not fighting on the front lines, they are merely spectators, and those on the outside looking in can never be objective because they are only watching the battle while others are fighting the fight. To them, many things are impossible, but to men like Mandela nothing is impossible if you are armed with the right mentality and spirit.   

-BR