‘Dreams are nothing more than wishes, and a wish is just a dream, you wish to come true’ ~ Harry Nilsson, The Puppy Song
Dreams are an important part of our lives. They signify our hopes, fears, desires, deepest thoughts and sometimes, just provide us with a little nighttime entertainment.
Ponder for a moment, if you will, what life would be like, if we suddenly lost the ability to dream, whether subconsciously or simply day dreaming…
Elsie sits quietly on the park bench watching the birds hopping to and fro hunting for worms and other tasty morsels. On a normal day, this creative young child would be smiling in delight at the happy little day dreams in her head, imagining what it would be like to be a little bird. To soar into the trees and sing a merry tune, not a care in the world, never wondering where the next meal will come from or if there will be a place to sleep that night.
However this is no ordinary day. Today she is unable to day dream. Today her mind is blank. She is unable to spin little happy tales and only knows the facts. The bird eats insects, the bird can fly because of it’s feathers and the way it is built. The bird raises babies in the spring and migrates in the fall. The bird’s name is a robin and it is gray with a reddish breast.
How dull life would be without the ability to dream! There would be no art, no designs, no creativity. Everyone would play by the rules, everything would be black and white and clear cut. No coloring outside the lines or purple skies with orange trees.
By reading this I’m sure someone will be thinking that I am confusing ‘imagining’ with ‘dreaming’. However I disagree. Imagining and Dreaming are one in the same and both are important aspects of our lives. The dreams we have at nighttime reflect on who we are, as individuals. Those who say that dreaming is one of the things that makes us human, has never seen a cat or dog running and growling in their sleep. But I digress.
Dreams reflect our deepest fears, that maybe we don’t admit to. I am afraid of falling, occasionally my mind gets mean and I have dreams where I am falling endlessly down a black board, never reaching the end, but just falling. Those dreams have been less and less as I have gained more confidence in myself. Dreams give me the ability to subconsciously relax after a stressful day by coming up with wacky things to entertain my mind, or things to pleasure my mind. I’m sure this is the same for many people.
In the past, civilizations had dream seers and prophets who were given visions, or dreams by their gods. In many ways these men and women had great power over the country and according to the dreams they had, the course of a battle could be decided, famines predicted and judgments cast. In Grecian history, Hero’s were gifted with visions which embarked them on many of their adventures, their gods and goddesses guiding their way by these dreams.
In conclusion, dreams are an important and healthy part of the human system, both on a personal and world wide scale. Without the capacity to dream, the world would be a very different place, like a sheet of white paper and no colors to put on it. The lack of dreams would inhibit us from moving forward, from progressing to better things. However, we can dream, and we do. Architecture, art, sculptures, science, technology, books, music and movies, all brought about by mans simple ability…to dream.
