Friday, July 25, 2014

The Dreamer and the Hermit

Gosh I didn't know what to write about this week... I was looking all week for inspiration and couldn't seem to get any traction after a couple of sentences... Maybe those ideas need some time, maybe they'll be something someday... Luckily I was reading The Matt Walsh Blog today about 50 Shades of Grey and it hit me... Okay, bad play on words, I know... but seriously, here I go, plagiarize away... Okay, seriously now, you should read his post about 50 Shades of Grey, after you've read the rest of mine and I promise, I only want to steal a couple of sentences and twist them into what my little mind sees... "Far-fetched? Perhaps. Unlikely? Maybe. Probably achievable at this point? Yes, definitely, but let me dream. And, more than dream, let me try. Let me try to bring about this Utopia."

I'm not talking about 50 Shades of anything, except how we see the world.. Everyone has different ideals than the next, everyone has their own dreams that many would scoff at... But why must we scoff at each other's dreams at all? Are we the dream giver, must we put in the blood, sweat and tears we assure a dream that grandiose would take? No, so what difference does it make if someone else wastes time on a unreachable dream?  It shouldn't make any difference at all, I get it, you're concerned... Well, there's a major difference between expressing healthy concern and question than taking a knife to the heart of the dream itself.  There's lots of time where parents training children to ride a bicycle don't believe the child is skilled enough or mentally ready to go without training wheels but do you know the correct way they handle it? They express their concern and even advise on the possibly scraped knees consequence and then they take the training wheels off and stabilize the bike with their hand and encourage the child as he or she takes off into the new-found freedom. Sometimes the child falls down, sometimes the parent has to get out the peroxide and bandages, wipe away the tears and comfort away the broken dream of a day of bicycle caravan with the neighbors... Sometimes, after the first or second fall the child doesn't want to get back on a bike, they can't, the dream is too big, it's stupid... The parent then becomes the believer of the dream, encouraging the child to try again, making sure the child knows they can do it and soon enough the dream is mended and realized. So why can't we do that for each other?  

Why can't we advise of the possible falls without saying "you could get knocked down by a passing car and killed, or maimed, or worse!" Can you imagine if parents told their children of every possible danger before they tried to learn anything new?! We would have a world of terrified hermits!  And how sad is it that out world is chalked full of terrified dream hermits?  I mean, seriously, even though it may sound funny, that's exactly what many have become... And I don't want to be that way!   It should not be that way, we should try!  How hypocritical that we teach future generations to live life to the fullest, follow your dreams, try, try again and we sit in the shadows of fear ourselves!  

We all have dreams; maybe they're buried beneath business, covered by carelessness, maybe they are broken by our own disbelief or smothered in words of discouragement passed our way by other dream deniers but where ever they are, how ever tattered or damaged they are, dig them up, believe again, try! And next time you think of discouraging someone else on their dream that seems impossible to you remember, nothing is... Nothing is really impossible, convey your concern and then become a fellow believer and encourager. The worst thing that can happen if you believe in a dream destined to remain only a dream is give the dreamer someone who understands the disappointment with them.  The next time you're listening to someone else discourage your dreams, or you're hearing your own negative thoughts speak these words ""Far-fetched? Perhaps. Unlikely? Maybe. Probably achievable at this point? Yes, definitely, but let me dream. And, more than dream, let me try. Let me try to bring about this..."

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