The other afternoon here in Sardinia, I was sitting on my porch, not doing much, just thinking. I could have been thinking about the NBA playoffs, but I’m not certain. The truth is I cannot remember what it was that I was thinking about that particular afternoon, but I do remember that while sitting out in the Mediterranean sun I had a a minor revelation.
I said to myself, “Ryan, you have been reading thriller-action-type books for seven months. Your peers are in AP Literature reading important things, so you need to read important things!”
Please don’t make fun of me too much, but that was my thought process on that particular day.
So in the next instant, I jumped up and got on the computer to find some “important” books. (For Christmas, my parents sent me a Kindle, so I can buy books whenever I want.) I came across a list of 100 books for the lifetime learner, a fine place to start, in my opinion.
I got the list narrowed down to two novels: Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” and “The Right Stuff” by Tom Wolfe.
No surprise, I chose the Wolfe book to read first. It took me four daysHere is a quick synopsis: Wolfe basically tells the story of the beginnings of manned, rocket-powered flight. He bases the story off a wealth of firsthand accounts, interviews and extensive research that he did himself. The book spans the time from when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, to the end of NASA’s Project Mercury.
It was fantastic.
Then, after I read the book, I did in fact have a sort of revelation, possibly an important one. Throughout the novel, Wolfe gives examples of how the pilots with “the right stuff” always progressed and became more respected and generally superior to those who were left behind. If a pilot were lacking “the right stuff,” he simply had peaked in his abilities and would not advance.
These “cuts” were extremely relatable to the world outside of elite fighter pilots because, let’s face it, we can’t all be Maverick from “Top Gun.” But, in fact, the cuts seemed like they were everywhere, including our world safely inside of the sound barrier. By the end of the novel, I could see them: The ACT test, graduation, getting a job, getting a promotion, everything in life could essentially be considered one of Wolfe’s “cuts.” I was so convinced that this wild, rough, ground-breaking, fast-paced world of jet pilots wasn’t that far away from my own.
Well, then, I have to ask the obvious question at this point: Do I have the right stuff? Do I have that mysterious swagger about me that will lead me through life like subconscious turn-by-turn GPS, eventually leading me to a place of success? Or will I eventually hit a wall, a roadblock? Will I plateau?
Do you have the right stuff? Does the guy interviewing for the same job as you have it? Will that eager employee eventually knock you out of your place, or kindly pass you by on his own personal ascent to greatness? Who knows what is the essence of “the right stuff”?
But if what Tom Wolfe says is true, and there are in fact “cuts” and people who can garner up “the right stuff,” what can those who don’t have it do? Sure, you can study, try harder to become the best, but eventually, as surely as the sun sets, someone with “the right stuff” will pass you by. It is an inevitability. Take Barack Obama. No disrespect to any Hawaiians, but the man went from a kid in Honolulu to leader of the free world. Clearly he had some edge, maybe “the right stuff.”
It’s chilling to think: What if some people out there in the world are just better than you and you can’t do anything to change it? What can you do?
Maybe I need to start thinking about baseball instead. But then again, maybe I have the right stuff.
Ryan Wheeler (rwheeler35@comcast.net) of Parker is a junior at Ponderosa High School who is studying abroad this year.
