Dream Big

An accquaintance of mine stopped by my desk a few days ago and told me that the night prior I was in her dream. Of course, this got me all excited; because...well I love to be talked about, thought about, bottom line I'm an attention whore. We all know that. She's a native of Columbia and while I was expecting her to tell me I was involved in some elaborate coffe bean or cocaine smuggling ring, alternately it was described to me that instead I was somehow hanging out with Harry Potter while her and I were travelling around her native land etc. etc. etc., and well, I lost interest. But I told her that at least it was inspiration for my next blog entry. So then I got thinking about the literal and figurative tenses where the simple word can evoke a thought taken into so many different directions. Our neighbours to the south, they just love to coin the term 'American Dream' which for all intents and purposes usually refers to the perfect little cookie cutter 4 person family consisting of their children; a boy and a girl, living in a 4 bedroom tudor style home behind a white picket fence on a tree lined street in a middle class neighbourhood. Jr. goes to college and plays football, Missy loves Barbies and has the posters of the latest pop icon adorning her walls. You get the idea. I'll tell you, my dreams are a little more exciting than this, and while I forget them once waking up, I can also tell you that my ideal is also not likely this scene; and certainly I can't be alone in this thought. Now, let's take Missy. She's always 'dreamed' of being a bigtime actress and has picked up, moved from her home in the midwest in a beater of a car and driven 3000 miles to Hollywood to be a highly proficient waitress. Disappointing. And well Jr. there...maybe just maybe he is so influential that he can attract the attention of an entire nation, be written into the history books with a single solemn anthem stating "I Have A Dream". History buff I am not, and honestly I couldn't tell you who that dude was that chanted the famous words at the bottom of an obelisk beside the giant wading pool in some parliamentary city, we'll call him Malcolm Vandross King IV. Bottome line, the big 'D' word can be taken any which way. Is a dream imagination, fascination, or realism? In the truest sense of the word, it's something only seen in the make-believe instead of reality...unless you're lucky. I even looked up 'Requiem for a Dream' and while I had no idea it was a novel/movie, stars a great actress Ellen Burstyn and revolves around addiction, it was also news to me that the word requiem is a Roman Catholic reference. Oh dear. What I do know at least is that it's a movie I definitely want to see...and soon. Recently a friend of mine went through the loss of her father, and while I wanted to extend to her a fitting quote I had heard at a funeral just 6 days prior regarding an account on grief and it's purpose; I was unsuccessful in my thorough online search to recapture the simple piece but came across this one instead. Approrpiate for this little writing at least, I leave you with this. "I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -- myth is more potent than history -- dreams are more powerful than facts -- hope always triumphs over experience -- laughter is the cure for grief -- love is stronger than death." ~Robert Fulghum~

Toodles