Chuckism #28
There's no wrong with your head in the clouds long as you got a toe on the ground.
Very few of us are lucky enough to born into a life where our hopes and dreams are as cherished by our family -or those that go to making our life - as they are to us. Very few of us have probably never heard words amounting to ridicule, or being berated for not thinking about life; not being more down to earth. And I would love to tell you that I was one of those lucky few.
But I wasn't.
No, unfortunately for myself, like so many, most of my dreams were excused off as the fancies of youth; things I'd out grow. Or, as it appeared I wasn't going to, shot down by so many words. (And we already covered that, last night.) So I can't say, with too much power to it, that I grew up with much encouragement in the endeavors that would eventually rule my life. (Ironic since a very large portion of my family has some form of artistic talent.)
And maybe that's okay. At least insomuch as it showed me something very important; something that has kind of kept me stable...
Okay, stop laughing; there actually is a measure of stability in my life. It may not be what you might call stable, but it's my stable, and it works.
Anyway, something that has helped to keep me stable in life; where the practical real world is concerned, anyway. And that is knowing how to navigate the demands of the every day mundane gears of living in a society. The ins and outs of keeping your boiler churning are really important, because, if you can't keep up the pressure, then you can't keep the wheels turning, and you'll never make it down that track. Well, not very far, at any rate.
So, I say, if you've got big hopes and dreams, you get to chasing them. As long as you know where you're stepping, there's no hurt in looking up and beyond. In fact, it's pretty much a huge part of living a fuller life. And that brings me to one of the two make up Chuckisms I still owe...
Chuckism #33
Real lucky are the folk who find themselves gone before their dreams.
As an author, I've prided myself as an observer of people... even if I can't understand half the weird stuff they do. But one thing I have come to find is that those who are living with no dream in their heart aren't really alive. whether it's something big, like writing the Great American Novel (tm), or something as easy and fun as getting that full assortment of that rare line of keepsakes, most everyone has themself some sort of dream.
But life - or at leas those who go about trying to cast a how-to on living - has this way of putting to rest dreams, for some odd reason. (No, not really odd. But that's neither here nor there in terms of what I have to say.) So it gets to putting forth a grind, trying to get you to stop all that dreaming nonsense and get to work making money, babies, etc. Because, well, that's what life is supposed to be all about, according to life... or those who go about trying to say so.
But one thing I have come to find in this world is that, at least around here, in the Western World (tm), that those little dreams we have to bake the perfect cake, or open a little Etsy shop, or even publish art and comics are the very things that stoke the flames of our heart's fire box. And like many things in life, it's not so the there as it is to the getting of there; the journey as apposed to the destination.
When that's gone, so is much of the cause and thrill of living. The trying of new things is left for the reliable. Outings take a back seat to the couch. Growth is replaced by a safe, warm box. And learning is dropped for a mouth full of spoon fed media culture.
Now, no one has said that dreams must come true. After all, I will probably never be able to colonize Mars with Legos. But, that being that, chasing dreams is the thing that fills a life with its meaning, and its purpose. It can fill a soul with drive, ambition, and, who knows; maybe even be passed on to an entire new generation of folk ready to make for that horizon.
Dreams refined tools, created art and architecture, cured sickness, took us across the lands, into the sky, and to the moon. Dreaming gives us tomorrow, and a world of promise to carry on for generations to come. Now that's what I call living. To go on without them is not to be alive at all; it's just being.
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