Jesse Love

Celestopea Times

Editorial Columnist

Tornado in a Can

We underestimate ourselves.  Every day we make decisions based upon, among other things our perception of our ability to accomplish our goals and desires.  We only set the sight so high, only pace ourselves at a certain level of effort, to insure we can meet our goals.  Past experience has probably taught us that if we raise our expectations too high, we could come crashing down, so we have learned to set the bar at just the right height to go forward with little risk of getting hurt or failure.  In other words, we accept mediocrity rather than stretching for a greater accomplishment.  But is this who we really are; someone that exchanges security at the price of greatness? Of course not!  Look into your innermost feelings, beyond the artifices of appearance, routine or other people’s expectations.  Inside the depths of your soul, inside the cellular memories of your lives past, inside your hopes and aspirations for this life, there is a heroic person, someone that is here for a magnificent purpose, someone NOT satisfied with mediocrity or running with the crowd.  Someone ready to burst forth in wonder upon the world!

Recently, in the news, there was an interesting article about an elderly Kansas farmer named Frank Polifka, who has invented what is being called a “Tornado in a Can”.  Mr. Polifka observed the primordial power of the Great Plains tornadoes and figured out a way to replicate and control that tremendous force, inside an 8 foot tall steel cone he calls the “Windhexe”, which he keeps in a corrugated shed behind his barn.  It’s a quaint setting that has brought corporate America to his door.  One corporate executive commented that, “It kind of looks like something your uncle might invent in the back yard.  But it really sparks the imagination with what you could do with it.”

My, oh, my, what you can do with it!  With a simple twist of a valve, Mr. Polifka unleashes the fury of a cyclone with the roar of a hurricane!  Hot, compressed air is forced into the Windhexe, whirling and spiraling counterclockwise at tremendous speed.  It produces a superheated vortex which pulverizes concrete into powder and reduces solid rock into dust in a matter of minutes.

The Tornado in a Can transforms any material into its’ pure essence before you have time to take a lunch break.  Throw in garbage, dirty diapers, raw sewage, and minutes later out comes a fine, dry purified powder that has fertilizer and other industrial uses.  One professor from a college brought in a couple hundred pounds of sloppy wet jelly fish, tossed them in a watched with wonder as the Tornado in a Can transformed them into a pure, white powder that has wonderful possibilities as a new medicine.  No matter what they have thrown in, from 400 pounds of Oreo cookies, to frozen pizza, dead birds, soda pop cans, glass bottles, cow manure or pine wood chips, anything and everything is pulverized into a dry powder after just minutes trapped inside the elemental fury of the Tornado in a Can.

There is a Tornado inside of you too.  A tornado of greater power than any invention of man.  A tornado like the Windhexe that can transform an unpleasant reality into a completely new, pure and wonderful reality. Only you don’t transform jellyfish and diapers.  You can transform people, beginning with yourself.  You can transform habits from destructive to beneficial.  You can transform lethargy and apathy into energy and activism.  You can transform aimlessness into purpose, failure into success.  You can transform sickness into health.  You can transform selfishness into service.   You can transform taking your companion for granted to putting them on a pedestal of love and attention.  You can transform telling your kids you’re too busy, to sharing things with them everyday, for those opportunities will never come again.  You can transform yourself from one of the faceless people among the teeming masses of humanity, into a shining light that walks a higher path and is a beacon of inspiration and example for others to take hope from and follow.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine to the world.”   

Everyone has the ability to make great contributions to the world and every life they touch.  But most live and die as they began, because they never strive to be more than is expected, never do more than is required, never make a commitment to themselves to fulfill the full measure of their creation.  But the power is there.  You are the Master and must make the choice; continue to live a life that will be forgotten and without purpose, or unleash the magic within you that can transform your life and benefit the life of everyone whose life you touch?  For you…you are the Tornado in a Can.  You have an unlimited potential.  You are a star in the heavens come to Earth.  You are not on this Earth by chance.  You are here for a purpose far greater than anything you have done.  Reveal yourself!

Begin this day, this moment, to be the new you.  But how to begin?  The best way to insure long-term success is to take one personal expansion at a time.  Improve yourself in one area, than go on to another.

Benjamin Franklin is often thought of as one of the greatest of the American founding fathers.  He was an inventor, scientist, poet, printer, writer, entrepreneur, naturalist and famous wit.  But as coach Ruff of BYU once said, “When you see a man on top of a mountain, he didn’t just fall there”.  Franklin worked his entire life to improve himself, to banish his faults and bring forth his merits.  Realizing he would be overwhelmed if he tried to institute all his personal improvements at once, he made a list of each of his vices and shortcomings and what the virtuous alternative would be.  He then chose one problem and focused intently on banishing it from his life and replacing it with a praiseworthy personal quality or ability of virtue and value.  In this manner, one by one, he succeeded in creating a truly outstanding life that has seen few equals in the over 200 years since his passing.  Benjamin Franklin was the city on the hill that could not be hidden, the light shinning brightly for all to see.  But so are you.  You have just as wonderful of a mind and probably even greater prospects for education, expansion opportunities and service.

Consider for a moment a nuclear bomb. With the latest technology they can make a nuclear device many times more powerful than the bomb that leveled the great city of Hiroshima, using less than 10 pounds of plutonium!  10 pounds!  Something you can hold in one hand that has the power to obliterate a major city.  Yet it is just a metal.  It only takes 1185 degrees Fahrenheit to melt plutonium into a harmless puddle.  Glass melts at almost twice that temperature.  But take a sphere of 10 pounds of solid plutonium metal, place it a bomb with all the right conditions, and it unleashes a force equivalent to the power of an exploding sun, with heat that will melt rock and a volcanic blast that levels everything before it for many miles into utter desolation.  If 10 pounds of metal can unleash that kind of power and force under the right conditions, think of the force that must be lying dormant inside of you, just waiting for the right conditions to release your power and abilities into the world.

Begin this day to walk a higher path of eternal progression.  Begin this day by making a promise to yourself to discover and unlock your hidden potential.  As Og Mandino has said, “If it is possible for clay and wood and hair to have their value multiplied a hundred even a thousand fold by man, cannot I not do the same with the clay that bears my name?”