Life Through Film
“Stories reminding ourselves of Universal Truths,
that awaken us to our possibilities”
We all have dreams.
It is said that if your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s not big enough.
It is suggested, to dream big.
“You know what my Dad always said,
Having dreams is what makes life tolerable.”
Pete
We need our dreams.
Fantasies are fun, but they are not dreams. With fantasies, you never put any real effort into attaining them. They can be fun, take you out of reality and serve as a great escape. They remain in place, in your mind, never manifesting into the physical.
Dreams can and do come true.
They start in your heart that goes on to direct your mind and they move from thought and idea into the physical world where you put all into motion and begin to see the results.
Intention is key.
Why do you dream what you dream? Why do you want it to manifest, come true?
Who is it for?
Why is it important to you?
Questions you need to ask and answer.
Once you have, you need to keep reminding yourself why you want your dream to come true.
Who will benefit? What will you contribute to?
The “Why?” is all important.
The “How,” Life will take care of.
Rudy Ruettiger from the time he was a boy wanted to play for the “Irish” the Notre Dame Football Team, in Indiana. He wore a gold helmet just like 
the real players.
He announced to his family that when he finished high school he would go to Notre Dame and play on the football team.
His dream was brushed off as foolish, he was the brunt of many a family joke. His life was already predetermined. He would graduate and work at the steel mill, like his father and his older brothers. No discussion needed. He had a girlfriend and her plan for them was to get married, buy a house and have children. It was the 60’s and this was the expected destiny of many.
But Rudy has a dream. He hears the doubts of others, but he does not doubt. He is a living vision board of his dream.
On Rudy’s 22nd birthday in the lunch room at the steel mill his friend Pete gives him a Notre Dame jacket that he found in a surplus store.
“I said, it’s gotta be yours.
You were born to wear that jacket.”
Pete
Rudy dreams big and leaves his home town, Joliet Illinois.
Rudy meets endless challenges and obstacles. He doesn’t have the grades, he is diagnosed with Dyslexia, a learning disability, he’s too short, he doesn’t weigh enough and he has no athletic ability and many along his path do not believe what he dreams is possible.
His father shares a story about his grandfather, a hard working labourer. Someone says there’s money to be made in dairy cows. So he invests in a farm and cows. He does this for the money, he doesn’t know cows. He takes his family into ruin.
Rudy is not his grandfather, he knows football and Notre Dame.
He saturates himself in Notre Dame, he doesn’t give up. He gets closer and closer to realizing his dream. And yet time is of the essence. Frustration sets in and he decides to quit.
Yes, Rudy has had it hard, rejection after rejection. Who wouldn’t throw in the towel and just give in to the negativity of the others.
It is Rudy’s intention that is slowing him up. Why he does what he does.
You see Rudy attracts all kinds of opportunities along his path and he attracts people who appear at the right time in the right place to be of assistance. Rudy does have successes. But Rudy wants to dress for a Notre Dame game, run down the tunnel on to the field.
Rudy
“I wanted to run out of that tunnel for my Dad, to prove that I was somebody.”
Fortune (the head groundskeeper, who hires Rudy)
“You are so full of crap.
You’re five feet nothin’ a hundred and nothin’ and you got hardly a speck of athletic ability and you hung in with the best football team in the land for two years!
And you’re also gonna walk out with a degree from the University of Notre Dame.
You don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody except yourself. And after what you’ve gone through you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen. Now go back.”
Here is the glitch that holds us all back.
When we go after our dreams in hope of proving ourselves to someone else.
Chasing after the love, acceptance, approval of another.
When this is in play, our dreams are no longer from our hearts. They have shifted into our head, our ego.
What Life was attempting to assist Rudy with, was not that he could beat the odds.
It was that Rudy’s heart, his spirit, would lead him to success. It is what so many who came in contact with him benefited from. It is what would see him through.
This is what Life would support him with.
We have dreams.
Dreams come true.
The key ingredient is the why. Why do you dream what you dream?
Who is it for?
You?
Or is it to prove something to someone?
What will your dream contribute to?
Rudy’s dream came true when he understood that it was his heart, not his head that allowed it to manifest and when it did, it lifted the hearts of all those who heard his story.
Dream big, get scared and make sure it’s from your heart.
Photos; Sharon Cooke, Internet Stock
View; CTV.ca
Released; October 1993
Director: David Anspaugh
Producer: Rober N. Fried, Cary Woods
Writer: Angelo Pizzo
Starring;
Sean Astin; Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger
John Favreau; Dennis “D-Bob” McGowan
Ned Beatty; Daniel Ruettiger Sr.
Charles S. Dutton; Fortune
Lili Taylor; Sherry
Robert Prosky; Father John Cavanaugh
Jason Miller; Coach Ara Parseghian
Chelcie Ross; Coach Dan Devine
Scott Benjaminson; Frank Ruettiger
Christopher Reed; Pete
Gerry Becker; Father Ted