Once there was a high school girl who decided that she wanted to become a fighter pilot. She had decided this after watching a movie with her brother, and in the movie it had all worked out perfectly.
She knew that it would involve a great deal of hard work, but to be honest, she also knew that she was a harder worker than her brothers were. Her grades were better, even better than her friend John at school. He was a senior and had been accepted at the Air Force Academy. In short, she thought that she could do it.
But she knew that her parents would not be likely to approve. In fact, she knew they would not approve, but she thought maybe her mother might be a little more sympathetic—which turned out not to be the case. At first her mother thought she was making a big joke, and joked right back with her. “Oh, that would work well,” she said. “About as well as the time I assigned the dog to fold the linen.” But when her mother saw the look on her daughter’s face, she realized she was serious, and apologized to her. Then she gave her a hug, and said, “Why don’t you talk to your father about it?”
And so she did. He was in his shop working on something, and she poured out her story to him. “And mom thought I was joking, but I don’t know why. I know I could do it.”
And her father surprised her too, and said, “Honey, I know you could do it too. I don’t have any doubts on that score.”
“So you think I should?”
“No, those are two different questions, could and should. Just because a thing can be done does not mean that it should be done.” While he was talking, he was continuing to work on his project, which happened to be a bird house. He was putting the roof on, and took down a large crescent wrench from his tool rack, and starting pounding in the last few nails with it.
She looked at him, astonished. “What are you doing?”
“Pounding nails,” he said. “And you see that I can do it. With practice, I think I could even do it well. But that is not what this was designed for. It does something else much better.”
With that, he looked at her and smiled. “Just like you will. Much better.”