Never Give Up On Your Dreams... Unless It Works Out Better To Do So.

I am saddened to hear that my dear friend of many decades, Wally Funk, has passed away. I’d known Wally since I was in my twenties. She used to turn up driving an RV and stay in my driveway. Over time, she and I co-authored some magazine articles, and she features as a chapter in my very first book, Into That Silent Sea. As a flight instructor, she taught me how to land an airplane. She offered me a VIP invite to a Space Shuttle launch. She was an irrepressible force of nature, and born to fly airplanes, at a time when “girls weren’t supposed to do that.” She became a skilled aviator – a natural, stick-and-rudder type. But her dreams were even wider. As a kid in her early twenties she dearly wanted to fly in space, and was selected for some private medical testing that for a while looked like it might lead to achieving that dream. But when it didn’t happen she “threw it a fish” (to use a Wally expression) and went on to other things.

She was someone who hoped to fly in space in the very early 1960s and eventually did in 2021, so this might seem like a time to say, “never give up on your dreams.”

Perhaps so.

But on reflection, Wally provides a different inspiration.

Wally had a dream, to fly in space. Then it didn’t happen. So instead, she lived life to the fullest in every other way possible. She continued her wish to fly, fly, fly everything. She became a “first” in many other ways, in aircraft accident investigation, making everyone’s lives safer as a result. She became the first woman FAA accident inspector, and one of the first woman NTSB accident inspectors.

She was exuberant, vibrating with energy even late in life, always wanting to see what was around the next corner, making new friends, enjoying new experiences.

At some point, the dream did not matter, because she was doing something else – making the absolute best out of every moment in life.

And then, as if plugged into the electric current that was Wally, Jeff Bezos offered her a Blue Origin spaceflight. And out of all the original group of 1960s women who had hoped to fly in space, Wally was the ONLY one who did. The rocket was probably powered by her enthusiasm alone.

Is it a coincidence that she was the only one to fly? I think not. I think Wally made having dreams, giving up on them or not, irrelevant. Instead, she LIVED. And then dreams came her way.

WHAT a life.

I wonder what Wally would think of this reflection. My guess is she would be her usual. “Sure, great, now where shall we go NOW?” Who has time to stop and think when you have so much fun doing?

I will miss you, and love you, my dear friend.