We were walking along the trail, in the rain, as I remember it, carrying on an erudite conversation.

We had been a week on Kilimanjaro, now filled with vast – and half-vast – ideas.

Bob articulated a principle that I found absolutely fascinating… and compelling.

“Where did you learn that?” I asked.

“I made it up,” Bob said.

Further on down the trail, he shared another idea, novel and exciting. “Where did you hear that one?” I asked.

He laughed. “I made that up too!”

Much later, thoroughly exhausted, well fed, and more than a bit lubricated by local brew, we sat around the dinner table talking expansively into the evening.

Plots and plans for the future; strategies and ideas.

Bob shared a concept that I thought was so cool.

“Where did you discover that?” I asked.

He threw his head back – and roared: “I just fucking made it up.”

We quickly branded around a new ‘educational institution:’ FMU.

And why not? All great original ideas spring forth from the emptiness of the Infinite Universe. (Indeed, all of creation.) Sure, we’re informed by a body of knowledge that has gone before us, influenced by our surroundings and impacted by culture. But it is from the limitlessness of our imaginations that wonder arises; magic from the recesses of our minds. Think Morse code, micro-chips, cell phones and robotics, not to mention space travel, light bulbs, the Sistine Chapel and the David.

It’s all made up! Every bit of it.

Including who we think (and say) we are.

Our identities. We make those up too.

But then – so often – we forget.

And get stuck; hung up on ‘something’ that we perceive to be permanent, ‘something’ someone told us once: good, bad, achiever, loser, gifted, child of an alcoholic, learning disabled. Or perhaps later, ‘hung’ on a job that became who we thought we were: teacher, lawyer, manager, mechanic, artist, entertainer.

We forget that we made them up to start with… and that, at any time, we get to change them.

We always get to change them.

That to change, to evolve, IS the path to success; the way to prosperity, freedom and fulfillment.

And that failure to change is death.

Mahatma Gandhi suggested: Be the change, become the change you seek.

We make up who we are. Why not make up something good?

And if you’re ever looking for that post-graduate degree, don’t forget good ol’ FMU.