“Your mission, if you choose to accept it…..” Everyone knows this famous line from the show “Mission Impossible.” In the show, Phelps receives his challenge mission via some kind of device. After he’s heard it, the device explodes or evaporates or otherwise disappears. From there, he must either accept the mission and go forward into his next adventure. Or he can apparently decline. The choice is inferred in that opening sentence. In the show, however, he never declines. If he did, we would have no show that week! The excitement lies in what each new mission’s requirements will unfold.

Each time, Phelps accepts a mission, he already knows it will be dangerous. Danger is always a given. Attacks on his life, death threats, dangerous pursuits, evil villains, astute adversaries, assassination…