Camelot is real.

It doesn’t matter if King Arthur existed, or not. The myth of Camelot endures. For Camelot is no place, but an idea. The idea of Camelot has endured for millennia. It will endure as long as English Civilization endures.

The last time Camelot manifested in physical form was in 1963. The last mortal avatar of Arthur, one John F. Kennedy, was shot through the head in Dallas. As JFK’s spirit departed for Avalon, his Guinevere mourned, her visage still matted with blood and brain matter. Soon, the nation, too, mourned for Camelot. Arthur was followed by Mordred: JFK by LBJ and then Nixon.

When Arthur Met Apollo

JFK embodied an era of idealism and aspiration, where both those who lead and those who follow should work to make the world a better place.

“Son, there were mornings when we would get to work early,” recounted Kenny O’Donnell, a Kennedy-era top aide. “Jack and Bobby and I would sit in the Oval Office and talk about how we could change the world that day.”

JFK was no saint. He was only human. However, he was a true knight, speaking English with an elegant transatlantic twang instead of haughty, holier-than-thou Shakespearean.

For Kennedy, the space program was an idea, a mission, a call to action with a great goal which is the heart of the matter of the mindset that is called Camelot.

Today our politicians debate the space program as a budget item. NASA has a tiny budget compared to the US military-industrial complex. Even worse, America is dependent on the Putin’s goodwill to fly its astronauts to the ISS.

What UpThrust Does

We aren’t JFKs. We are no Jobses, either. None of us are, and perhaps, never will be, anything other than ordinary. However, it is important that we dream of our better selves, and of a better world that we build not for ourselves, but for our children, and their children.

Yes, UpThrust is a content blog. We write for the youth, and for those who come after us. We respect the old and the dead, but we aren’t beholden to them.

We seek to understand and celebrate young dreamers and doers from all spheres of life, be it Dhaka, Delhi, Bangkok, London or New York. Our stories cover topics that collectively encapsulate work, life, play, pop and culture.

That is simply ‘what’ we do. Focus, instead, on our ‘why’.

We create stories, because we want to dream. And we want others to dream too. And then, maybe, just maybe, some of us sleepwalkers can start working on those dreams too.

Dreaming of Budget Flights

Armstrong and Aldrin went to the moon in a spacecraft which had one-thousandth of the computing power of an iPhone X. Yet, the vast majority of iPhone owners don’t read anything other than Facebook and Twitter feeds. We use Youtube to watch Pewdiepie, Logan Paul or Salman Muqtadir. These are perfectly fine people. But they aren’t dreamers.

Where have all the dreamers gone, you ask? That’s what we have been asking for most of our lives. Maybe, perhaps, they are up there, soaring through the clouds?

In fact, the dreamers are all around us. Messi was a dreamer, and so was Dwayne Johnson, Lebron James and David Bowie.

I don’t know why the sole identity of a country like Bangladesh has to be ‘a resilient developing country that’s lifting itself out of poverty, and creating robust employment for an young, educated workforce.’ We already have Mashrafes and Sakib Al Hasans. We have an Ayman Sadiq and, also, a Hussain M Elius.

We have done well for ourselves. But we now look to the future, and ask. Can we dare to dream for a JFK of our own?

The stories we write in UpThrust speak of millennial struggles, triumphs, setbacks and comebacks. We dream for Bangladesh, but our dreams aren’t confined to its borders, or even to this world.

We aren’t idealistic all the time. We talk about the little joys and annoyances of everyday life too.

We are young. We are dynamic. And for the briefest of moments, we are infinite.

We are flying. Come join us. Read our stories, dream, release your wings and fly.