Risk: Try some green eggs and ham

          Roses are red,

          Violets are blue,

          I can’t rhyme,

          How about you?

          Even though my rhyming skills may not be superb, I know of a man who’s made a life out of it.

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          Dr. Seuss.
          The quirky names, the rhythmic beat of the sentences, the colorful drawings and the twisting tales appeal to children, teaching them how to read while enjoying it at the same time.

The books appeal to adults, too. The life lessons one can learn from Dr. Seuss do not stop at a certain age.

Horton Hears A Who reminds us to be kind to each person we meet.

If I Ran The Circus shows us having big, crazy dreams are always allowed.

And Oh, The Places You’ll Go teaches us we all have something special to offer this world.

My favorite, though, happens to be Green Eggs and Ham.

            Published in 1960, the story follows the furry character Sam-I-Am as he persistently asks his unnamed friend to try green eggs and ham. Sam-I-Am presents hilarious scenarios to his friend such as eating with a mouse in a house or foxes in boxes all in an attempt to get him to take a bite.

Sam-I-Am’s persistence ultimately teaches us all a valuable lesson – you never know until you try.

            Certain moments in Dr. Seuss’ life can be said to have inspired this book – or at least show us what can come out of trying something new.

            As an English major, Dr. Seuss attended Oxford, hoping to please his father by becoming a professor.

            Oxford bored him, though. Dr. Seuss met his wife in 1926 and married her in 1927 instead of completing his degree.

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readersread.com

          In 1960, Dr. Seuss’ publisher wagered that Seuss would not be able to write a book using 50 or fewer words. The final product? Green Eggs and Ham – one of the bestselling children’s books of all time.

          These two instances perfectly exemplify what Sam-I-Am tries to teach.

If Dr. Seuss had never gone to Oxford, he would have never met his wife.

If his publisher had never challenged him, Dr. Seuss quite possibly would have never created Sam-I-Am.

As a child, I loved Green Eggs and Ham for its short, imaginative sentences, outlandish questions and absurd food choices.

As a college student, I love the book for the reminder that sometimes it is good to take a risk.
            Drastic changes in life really scare me. If I am comfortable with how I am living my life, I have a hard time breaking myself of those habits. The idea of doing something without knowing the outcome paralyzes me.

            I like being in control of my life. I like planning and making schedules. Every night before going to bed, I look over my planner, pack my backpack, check the weather and lay out my outfit for the next day. Some may call it OCD, I call it preparedness.

            Taking a risk might not be something I do constantly, but it does happen.

            On a sunny Friday morning in the summer of 2009, I found myself, as a Beaver Cross camp counselor, peering over the edge of a 40-foot-high wooden platform.

I am not afraid of heights, but climbing up a telephone pole just to voluntarily jump off a ledge to race across a 900-foot-long zipline did not seem like the safest idea.

Thoughts of failure, foolishness and uncertainty ran through my mind, making what should have been an unforgettable experience one of fear.

           I do not remember climbing up the staples to the top of the telephone pole – I either raced up them or erased the memory.

I do remember gripping the pole, though, looking over the edge at all my campers down below. Seeing their smiling faces and hearing their words of encouragement erased all my fears. Regardless of failure or success, they would still admire me.

Cold, hard proof that I
actually did it - I'm not lying!

           So I went for it. The rush of speeding over the tree tops and the breathtaking view relieved my worries.

I always picture myself back up on that platform when facing risks.

Will I step off and see what happens or will I let my fear of imperfection and the unknown keep me from doing something I might actually enjoy?

Stepping off that platform was like trying my own kind of green eggs and ham.

            They present themselves to each of us differently, and we all choose to deal with them in our own ways.

             For me, taking little bites each time works well. But for Ryan Boyette, biting off huge chunks at a time seems to be paying off.

Boyette began working for Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organization, in 2003 in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains after civil war broke out.

Soon after, the organization ordered Boyette and other volunteers to evacuate the war-torn area.

Boyette decided to stay, though. He had married a local health worker while there, created a bond with the people and could not leave them.

“It’s hard to get on a plane and say, ‘Bye, I hope to see you when this ends,’” he said to Nicholas Kristof in a piece written for The New York Times.

Boyette’s decision has turned itself into an opportunity to educate the Western World on Sudan.

He currently gathers information, photos and videos of the area, transmitting them mainly to the Enough Project, an organization fighting to end genocide and crimes against humanity.

The daily risks Boyette takes could cost him his life. But he sees a bad situation and wants to make a difference.

My small bites of green eggs and ham seem inconsequential to Boyette’s choice to take large bites. But with each bite I take, the choice gets easier, and the time I spend thinking about the risk becomes shorter.

            We all have a bit of Sam-I-Am’s friend in us – uncertain of what might happen or how we might react. Sometimes going for it is worth it. Each of us might have green eggs and ham presented to us in a different way, and we all might choose to deal in a different way, the taste of pride and happiness from trying never changes.