And you were there…
May 25, 08:08 AM
“The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.” – Dr Robert H Schuller
Dreams. There are two forms. One where your fantasies come to life, where you can visit any world you can imagine, you’re the hero, the villain, the poet, the warrior, the sex god, the 50 foot giant robot who wants to kill all humans. The other dreams are those of the waking world, the aspirations for your future, the ‘if I could do whatever I wanted, this is how my life would be’. Dreams fill our lives but few of us ever fulfil our dreams.
“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives” – William Dement
I have messed up dreams when I sleep. Death visits them frequently. Either I die, or one of my friends die (possibly, maybe by me killing them) it’s is considered NOT normal if someone, somewhere in my dream doesn’t die. I’ve been eaten by a shark, electrocuted on train tracks (some people say this may be connected to the fact that I saw a guy electrocuted on a train…. I think it’s highly improbable), buried in cement, shot, stabbed, fallen… I die a lot. Then sometimes I wake up (but not really) absolutely terrified, unable to move because of intense fear and I sense shadow beings in my room. I have messed up dreams. These are the dreams that belong to the sleeping world, your subconscious releasing energy, sorting out your thoughts where scenes and people mould into each other forming a story, entertainment while you sleep. They aren’t real, and shouldn’t be real.
“He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.” – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I find the association of the word “dream” to both those of the sleeping and waking world to be interesting. Dream implies that something is not real (which is good in the case of the dreams above), a fragmented idea for a fantasy world. So when that word is associated with your aspirations and goals, immediately the mental shift is that they aren’t possible. You are behind before you even begin.
My other ‘dreams’ have changed through my life. But one thing has remained the same. I always questioned how and when the point in someone’s life would occur, that exact moment, where they let society’s expectations consume their dreams. I promised myself it wouldn’t happen to me. I failed. When I was little I dreamt of being a postman, then a pilot, then an actor. Now I just dream of doing anything that isn’t Agricultural Economics (something tells me I made some bad decisions with that one). I would still love to be an actor, even a pilot would be pretty cool…. Hell I think I could probably deal with being a postman too. While I don’t remember the exact moment, somewhere along the lines ‘reality’ kicked in and I’ve spent the past five years of my life doing a course I hate because it was the ‘smart’ thing to do.
“Don’t let your dreams be dreams” – Jack Johnson
Reality infects dreams like a kid who comes to school with chicken pox. One by one all the kids in the class get it, then their brothers and sisters and soon the whole school has it and your body itches and itches and your mum makes you go to the doctor and then everyone starts yelling at you and your friends are told they cant hang out with you because this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t come to school with chicken pox in the first place** ……………… We let the reality of society control the direction of our lives. We are expected to get a job, work hard, buy a house, have a family and then die (possibly not in this order). That’s fine, but at each step of the way people settle for less than their dreams. The job they get isn’t always the dream job, the house they buy isn’t always their dream house, sometimes they don’t die. I mean come on people. I understand that sometimes dreams aren’t achievable, but most people believe this before they even try.
“The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by sceptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.” – John Keats
Those around us mould our dreams. We live in a world filled with expectations: society, your mum, that kid that lives next door who thinks you are actually cool. Each person and event impacts our view of the world and what is possible. Inevitably we all reach that point where some of our dreams get left behind, and dreams change from being how we want our life to be to what fits nicely into how it already is.
I say that perhaps we should stop moulding our dreams to society and mould society to our dreams. I imagine though, most of you are thinking of Michael Caton in ‘The Castle’: “Tell him he’s dreamin’”
- I have never actually had chicken pox… in case you were wondering
Filed under: Ramblings