>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

“Confidence doesn’t come from winning. Winning comes from confidence, and that confidence comes from hard work.”

— Tom Callahan, on pro golfer Vijay Singh

The pro golfer Vijay Singh grew up in Fiji but has aced the American dream.

Even when the price of chicken rises 73 percent in a year the American dream clucks on.

Singh has defied aging and won more PGA tournaments since age 40 than just about anybody. And he knows the importance of the last four letters in the word American — I can.

See him at the end of the range practicing after the other golf pros have gone to their motels or motor homes. He hones every small detail, even being relaxed and having fun, and the results keep coming.

As the Fourth of July celebration nears, it’s time to reflect on what America means. It’s a land of often cleverly hidden opportunity. Even when the price of a dozen eggs goes up 26 percent a year and milk 15 percent, when the stock market is tanking and mortgage foreclosures are soaring, most Americans are optimistic that better times are coming.

For me, “I can’’ means staying the course. It means pursuing realistic dreams. Despite losing a spouse, contracting a chronic illness and seeing gas prices soar, I can go on and not just survive but thrive, even if bread prices are rising faster than the dough a loaf is made from.

What if Einstein had given up after failing his college entrance exams?

The economy means making adjustments. I can use a fan to cool down at about seven cents a day instead of going for the window box cooler, 35 cents a day, or central air or a heat pump, 85 cents a day. Not that there’s anything wrong with those options when Northeast Oregon turns into an oven.

I can adapt to new and changing conditions. If that means a new job, home, school, town or state, so be it. As archeologist Luther S. Cressman says in “The Sandal and the Cave,” “The newborn child can learn to be at home in any culture.” Oh, if only more adults were so adaptable.

I can give to others, knowing counterintuitively that I will get more back in return.

I can earn greenie points for driving 55 mph, reusing and recycling.

I can volunteer for some community organization and bloom where I am planted, even if the weeds of life crop up from time to time.

I can change my habits to more healthy eating and regular exercise and lose 30 pounds without giving up the occasional Dreamsicle.

Pat Summit, University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach whose teams have won eight national titles, says that “championships are won in the offseason.”

For most of us, though, there is no offseason.

We need to bring a great attitude every day, work hard and pay attention to small details that make a big difference. If we follow this formula, Carmelo Villegas, another pro golfer says, we will become champions, as least of ourselves.

The Fourth of July, America’s birthday, is a good time to remember the power of two simple words — I can.

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