Dreams End

I don’t know how it happened. Providence, luck, fate, I still can’t make sense of it, and yet here I am, in charge of dreams. 

I had assumed no one wanted the job. Too many dreams, like wishes, that were made upon a star, and just couldn’t be granted. But who says. You know how people get when they don’t really want someone to get something because they can’t have it themselves. Selfish it seems to me. There are plenty of dreams to go around.

Not that I envy anyone’s dreams, or believe I deserve something that they have I feel should be mine. It is just that dreams are so often wasted on those who do not believe in them. Dreams are all that really matter, and so many people don’t see that. I believe the mistake we make is that you can’t make dreams for anyone but yourself.

Dreams are the possibility that we need to keep us from turning into repetitious fools. They keep us looking to the future, towards enlightenment, away from the disappointments of the past.

I know that sounds oxymoronic, but it is not. Just because we dream and they don’t always come true, does not mean we have failed. We have simply illuminated the fallibility of a mistake. 

Dreams are little more than theories, and to prove them we must attempt to follow our inclinations. If we do not, we have failed for lack of trying. 

That is the reason I believe I was offered the job as a dream catcher. I think it was because I don’t believe in cynicism. It is like raining on your own parade.

I didn’t exactly know what a dream catcher was, or what I was expected to do. The job title implied catching dreams of course, but that was too literal to be taken seriously. You don’t catch dreams, you make them. They are individual testaments to beliefs you possess. They are the vision of a future you wish to inherit.  But catching dreams implies they belong to someone else and somehow they have escaped because of lack of interest.

I thought about asking what a dream catcher was supposed to do, but then thought perhaps they would change their mind about me if I admitted I had no idea what a dream catcher was, so I let it be. 

I found the concept intriguing the more I thought about it. There would be no reason to catch my own dreams as they are already mine, and I’m a hoarder when it comes to dreams. Other peoples dreams I would expect are theirs, and for me to catch one would be stealing, or perhaps rescuing would be more appropriate depending upon the situation. It seems honorable in a Robinhoodesque sort of way.  Catching dreams that others had given up on should be considered an admirable vocation. Dreams that went unfulfilled for lack of will or dedication saved from the complacency of disillusionment. Those dreams I assume should be picked up, and examined by anyone interested in the preservation of dreams.

Not many people I realize are interested in dreams. Sure they say they are dreaming about this or that, but rarely do they believe in the notion that dreams are a platform for life. A vision of something we intend to do, the fulfillment of something in ourselves. Dreams do not have to be selfish, or destructive. They can be as eccentric as we need them to be, or as obtuse. There are no rules I am aware of concerning dreams or their capture.

Recycling dreams should be a transcendent pursuit, perhaps a part of a universities curriculum.   

How one goes about capturing a dream I have no idea. I assumed if you could recognize a dream, and believed in the possibility it presented, it would be logical to accept it as one’s own. Dust it off, give it a new purpose. When a dream does not interest you, you could decide to leave it free to be picked up by another, or simply left to float through the universe in search of someone who believes in its particular possibility.

Take the “I had a dream speech.” It served as a conduit that ignited a movement that encompassed the entire country. It verified the democratic sentiment we had taken for granted. It emboldened those who felt ineffectual, or rendered irrelevant by those who made the rules. 

The dreams of many men and women over the centuries have gone on to be collected by masses of people intent on following them and by doing so making them their own. I can only imagine that is what will be expected of me.

I often wonder if it is the dream that makes a person who they are, or who they are makes the dream possible. To highjack another’s dream seems somehow immoral, but then not accepting a dream and its intent is also immoral or unethical, depending upon the dream and what it proposes we do in its name.

I began to wonder if dreams and hope were one and the same. I came to the conclusion they were not. Hope is an empty request, because it has no definitive purpose other than it become true. Dreams are more exploratory. They are not limited to the idealism expected from reality, but are capable of going beyond reality to another dimension that does not depend upon reality or fact, but relies primarily on the vastness of one’s imagination. Dreams are not limited to the present, past, or future, but rely on the ability to think beyond the limits of practicality, fact, truth, and explore the possibility that there are solutions, as well as questions, that demand answers that are not possible, as the questions have as yet to be asked.

I had decided to accept the position of dream catcher. It is not much different from what I was already doing. Yes, it was slightly more devious in nature, but then all unfounded notions are dubious by nature. Adopting unclaimed dreams and making them my own was not something I imagined I would ever do, but then this vision had never presented itself before. 

I began to think about what a dream consisted of, and could not think of one universal thing that applied. I came to the conclusion that dreams are manufactured by individuals based on their experiences, and therefore were tainted by the prospect of them being confined to the limits we place on them by our interests and experience.

I had always dreamed about being a…and then it struck me. I had always wanted to be…and realized dreams were made up of hope, wants and needs. It is the dichotomy between the hope and need that gives birth to the dream. It allows for our past and present to influence our decisions, but does not limit them by accepting only the factual representation of a wish, and ignoring the more esoteric vision that manufactures a dream by placing no limits on the possibilities it affords.

“I’ll let you be in my dream, if I can be in yours.” I forget who said that, but it sounds like fun; not to mention it makes my job so much easier.