The Cowboy’s Ride — Behind the Story

What was your childhood daydream or fantasy?

I’d like to think that no matter how humble or grand our beginnings are, we all had a daydream — maybe something so spectacularly impossible that the chance of it coming true wasn’t even important. It was dreaming that was important.

I think my brother’s daydream was to play for the Baltimore Orioles and (while we’re dreaming, right?) hit a walk-off homerun in the World Series.

Mine? Well there’s a photo I was hoping to share with you, but sadly cannot find it. I’m wearing a cowboy hat, several loops of rope at my side, and a toy pistol with a white plastic grip stuck inside a holster. I’m about five and standing behind the large house my parents rented for a year—known at the time as “Dragon Ordinary.” I was too young to ride a bike, but in my mind I was already galloping across an open prairie with the sun in my eyes. That was (well, one of) my daydream. In 1991, the country artist Billy Dean released “I Miss Billy the Kid.” It covers some similar ground as “The Cowboy’s Ride” and I realized I had some pretty good company in my daydreams. (And is a dang good song, even without my personal connection.)

Years ago I found a beautiful video short called Space Girls. If you have 9 minutes and 32 seconds to spare, you won’t be disappointed. These girls know how to take daydreams to the next level. Not only are they super-adorable, but the video also manages to be empowering. (In case you miss it, there’s a white board on a nightstand table that reads “Dreams Can Take You Anywhere.”)

Empowering because my dream of being a cowboy might have been unrealistic, but not every daydream gets sidelined by reality. Somebody scores the winning goal in soccer’s World Cup every four years, astronauts are born every day, and amazing actors create Oscar-winning performances every year.

Keep dreaming.

Thanks for reading,

—phillip