Why Dream? - Quareness Series 181st "Lecture".
Wandering in the wilderness
We find thoughts newly free
Deep mined in a tranquil sea,
Like for the best of us
Who for forty days and forty nights
Dallied in the desert
And begat an enduring dream.
In our modern era Martin Luther King Jr. told the world about his dream on 28th August 1963...and it too has had an enduring impact.
Have you got a dream?
What is your dream?
Whenever we think about maximising our chances to succeed in any of our joint human endeavours, we are constantly tempted to focus mostly (if not entirely) on a target outcome and a plan for how to get there. And when we do not achieve the hoped for result (as is often the case), we tend towards seeking to identify flaws in our plan with a view to correcting the "misleading" steps so as to try again. We see the reason why more after the event than before...but perhaps this is where much of the problem lies?
Most (all?) of us tend to learn only when we are ready and we're often not ready to run with another's planned objective. What really motivates others to support your dream is to make it their own? It's quite likely that people won't buy into what you do or how you do rather than why you do something. There's a hierarchy of potential effectiveness operating here with the "why" being way more relevant than the "what" or "how" i.e. the real reason why people "follow". As the late great Dr.King said..."I have a dream"...not..."I have a plan"...and people took on his dream as their own. It would seem that this motivational truth operates in every field of human group endeavour (political, societal, educational, religious, business, sport, competition, conflict, etc.) and is likely inherently embedded in our evolutionary existence.
The enduring impact of my dream/your dream/anybody's dream is a measure of how much others have made it their own. Of course "the reason why" in any endeavour can be a double-edged sword capable of good or evil and we need to be very aware of this. But taking our cue from those earlier enlightened ones, we can reasonably hope that our own really good dreams will prevail in the long run.
May the Good Lord give y'all good dreams.
Sean.
Dean of Quareness.
April, 2023.