I Believe in Dreaming

Aside Posted on January 9, 2014 Updated on January 8, 2014

I believe in dreaming.

The human mind is an incredible organ.  The only things separating humans from a world of the fantastical are closed eyelids, a lowered heart-rate, and steady breathing.  By laying our heads down at night, we enter a world that is composed entirely from brain matter; our past experiences, expectations, worries, our deepest desires form the blueprints of every dream we have.  Sometimes, these episodes of hallucinatory images and sounds feel so real, so tangible, that we believe them to be truth.

That’s a strong power.  I’ll dare even call it a superpower.  Because what else on this earth has the ability to look within themselves and reach subconscious levels of understanding?  What else can implement these visions of hope, glory, despair, weakness into their plans for the future?

I am an only child, and so I’m a perfectionist.  When I dream, I dream big.  I take an idea that floats, wayward, through my mind and I latch onto it.  Like the tail of an asteroid, I fix myself to visions of a bright future.  Vast ambitions seem like easily attainable achievements.  I know with unrelenting certainty that I will succeed, and I’ll do it without seeming to lift a finger.

Except I don’t.  Or, at least, I haven’t.  Because, every time I set my eyes on the prize, it’s often too big of a prize to take home at the end of the night.  In other words, I bite off more than I can chew.  And, within a week, the enthusiasm is snuffed out.  The asteroid has left the atmosphere.  I am defeated by my own unwillingness to accept anything less than my personal best.

But that’s the great thing about dreams.  Sometimes, they’re recurring.  And sometimes, latching on again to a repeated dream means we gain a special new awareness of our surroundings.  Like a beautiful deja vu, we’ve done this all before.  We know what’s going to happen before it does.  And we can change it.  We can steer into the skid, and take control.

This is an essay following the format of NPR’s This I Believe format and credit goes to my good friend who suggested the idea as a start-up incentive for this blog.  Thanks!