On Dreams

I dream, therefore I am. All of us dream, it is an essential part of what makes us human and alive. To dream is to dare, to once again become a child again. It is the act of not asking simply “why” but more importantly “why not?” Dreams, they are who we are and what we become. They tell us where we have been and light the way to where we are going. This sites purpose is to help not only myself but others to achieve their dreams, to reach for the brass ring, so it is only fitting that the first Special Topics post be about these dreams. What is a dream? How do they define us and shape us? Lets take a closer look at this powerful five letter word together.

As I said before, we all have dreams. Yet what is it to dream? In the English language to dream has several meanings. Of course there is the literal act of sleeping, “a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep.” This is of course a sensation most of us experience at night but it is usually not something that we can or should go for. I don't want to imagine a world where people go to school naked simply because it was a dream. These dreams do speak about who we are though. In fact a whole Special Topics paper could be spent musing on this one aspect of the word dream. Since the beginning of time we have been obsessed with our dreams, we seek meaning or divination through them. They can be described as either a physiological response within our brains or a psychological response to our subconscious. In essence they exist as unclassifiable experience in a world our human minds demand be categorized and classified.

Our sleeping dreams do give us a glimpse into who we are, our fears and our greatest hopes but they cannot be shaped, cannot be molded they are simply there, wild and untamed. Another definition of the word dream is “an unrealistic or self-deluding fantasy.” These are dreams like winning the lottery you never play or winning a Gold Medal in the Olympics when you don't play sports. These are flights of fancy and they are perfectly fine, so long as you come back to reality every now and again. These are healthy imaginings, a type of “what-if” game we play with ourselves which can be as revealing as the dreams we have while sleeping. For instance what if you did win that lottery, would you give than money to the poor or would you keep it all to yourself? If you won that Gold Medal, would you use your new fame to get lucrative endorsements or use it to help the causes you feel passionate about. These flights of fancy are usually recognized as just that, a working out of ones own imagination and no harm usually comes of it.

A definition that is related to the one above is when a person or thing is perceived as wonderful or perfect. It's similar to the flights of fancy but can be much more dangerous, it is when we believe that our imaginations are real. “The woman is love will tend to my every need,” states the single guy. “The perfect man won't have to ask me whats wrong,” states the single girl. Or my personal favorite, “The perfect job is one I will enjoy what I do and where everyone is respectful to me.” While these would be wonderful and perfect situations, we live in an imperfect world, one that forces us to make compromises on ideals such as these. They are dangerous because they are close enough to the truth that they can blind us to the everyday reality around us. Who wouldn't want a perfect job or a perfect mate? But if we try and force everything around us to conform to these grand illusions then we find ourselves unhappy in a world that refuses to live up to our standard of perfection.

So far we have seen dreams that peer into our souls, dreams that tell us who we are and dreams that can dilute our realities. They are powerful, dangerous things, yet the dreams we have looked at so far are nothing compared to the dreams I am interested in helping people achieve. I am talking revolution. The last definition we will look at is the dreams that are “a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal.” Of all the dreams a person can have I believe it is these dreams that are the most powerful, for they are the dreams that shape us into what we will become. Even the definition is powerful, to dream is to have an ambition, aspiration or an ideal, one that is uniquely yours for your own reasons and because of this they are our most cherished treasures. Where would we be today if the Wright Brothers never saw a bird and dreamed of flying with it? If Columbus didn't look across the ocean and dreamed of crossing it? Yet for all the power and innovation that dreams can provide they are incredibly delicate and fragile things. They must be nurtured, they must be built up they must be protected from the world around it.

You might be saying, “I can't change the world like Columbus did.” Or perhaps, “I have no ambition or I am to old to change anything now.” Dreams do not need to be important to anyone else but you, if you dream of becoming a better cook then that is your dream. If you dream of learning Japanese then that is just as powerful and just as important as the man who wants to touch space. C.S. Lewis once said “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” it is something that we should ever stop doing and is one of the common human experiences that transcends age, race or religion. A dream is a goal, it is something to aim for, to strive to achieve. The important part is that the dream must come from within, some inner spark or flame that compels you to go forward. If it comes from outside of you then it fails to be a dream, for there is no passion, and it becomes just another task for you to accomplish.

Everyone has some innate desire, some passion in their lives but not everyone follows their dreams. It is something that I find unique about dreams and that is the fact that we are the ones responsible for them, we choose to either chase after them or lay them aside. The roads of our lives are littered with the remains of cast off dreams, some we grow out of, others we have broken and cast aside with our own hands. The road you must follow to achieve your dreams is often difficult, sometimes impossible but it is your decision and yours alone that determines if a dream is fulfilled. We all live in an imperfect world and all to often life tries to make us give up on our dreams but we must still clutch those dreams to our breast and cherish them. Those around us will tell us that our dreams are foolish or that they get in the way of our careers but still the dreamer must hold tight to his dream. This world can take our liberty, it can rob us of our money, it can steal our souls and our lives, but it will never take away our dreams unless we allow it too.

Say you want to become a painter and in your first show not a single painting is bought, you are told you are a worthless hack by the local art critique. At the end of the day you have a choice, you can put down the paint brush as the art critique and the world says, or you can cling to your dream, work on your art and improve upon it. How many times did the Wright Brothers crash? How many times was Columbus called a fool and a crack pot? Every dream is built upon the back of failure because if something was easy we would already be accomplishing it instead of dreaming about it. Dreams often take hard work, dedication, passion and a ruthless determination to bring about. Yet in aiming for our dreams and failing (or not) we find fulfillment and accomplishment in the act very act of doing.

This is why the Dream Anvil was formed, I wanted to create a place to nurture dreams, a safe harbor for those who seek their dreams. It is not a place for those who just want their dreams to suddenly appear before them, perfect in their glory and splendor for all to see. I want this to be a place to work on ones craft, to shape their talents, skills and dreams. I choose the name Dream Anvil for a specific reason, the anvil is the tool used to bend and shape metal to the desires of the blacksmith. We are the blacksmiths of our dreams, which start out as just another lump of metal. We heat our dreams with the fire of our passion, we beat and shape our dreams with the hammer of our determination and temper it with our skill and then begin the process over again. Over time and with much effort our dreams will take shape and from the fires we will have forged something tangible. That is the goal, the dream of Dream Anvil, to become a place where its users can hone their skills and their craft and reach out for their dreams.

So keep reaching and when you find your dream never let go but most importantly never stop dreaming.

(All definitions come from the New Oxford American Dictionary.)