"Aqaba Is Over There; It's Only a Matter of Going."

Today I'm thinking about my favorite scene from my favorite movie, Lawrence of Arabia.

In case you don't know the plot, it's World War One and Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is an Englishman helping the Bedouins in the Middle East in their revolt against the Turks, who are allies of the Germans.

After a night of intense thought, Lawrence decides the thing to do is to capture the coastal town of Aqaba. This will enable the British forces to be supplied by sea and it will strengthen the British control over the Suez Canal. The problem is that Aqaba can't be taken by sea because it's heavily armed, and it can't be approached by land without crossing the world's worst desert.

So here's the clip, in which Lawrence proposes his plan (to take Aqaba by land) to one of the Bedouin leaders, Sharif Ali (Omar Sharif).

To me, it's an allegory about having lofty goals and attempting the impossible.