Man of Dreams [mark]

I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each others dreams, we can be together all the time. [Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes]

I had prayed some time ago to be a man who dreams, so there I was in the living room with George MacDonald. Why he materialized as a Mii from my Nintendo, I do not know. I sat there feeling like the character from C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" sitting, listening intently to his mentor George MacDonald.

He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. [Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]

Dr. MacDonald sat on the couch as the early morning sun woke upon the Alberta plains to the east; his eyes twinkled as he went on about the metaphor in his fairy tales. I am sad that I do not recollect what he said, I have tried again and again to bring it back into my mind, though, that was not what the dream was for. I just recall the silvery strands of his beard undulating with every word. Another character appeared, then another, and soon we four--Chesterton, MacDonald, Mario and I--in our electronic forms were playing tennis inside the console.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you will join us, and the world will live as one. [John Lennon, Beatles]

Gilbert, George, Mario and I played a few games until the conversation about literature and theology became too much for Mario so he threw down his monogrammed hat and racket in an unsportsmanlike manner and stormed off the court. Gilbert wiped the digital sweat from his brow and mentioned that he was, "not a man disposed towards exercise no matter how electronic it may be" so we surrendered the court.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. [Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven]

I am becoming a man of dreams. My mind and heart are wrapped up not in what is, but, in what can be. If given the chance to be satisfied with life and everything I have accomplished I don't know what I would do. To live life as a dreamer is to content yourself in being constantly dissatisfied with where you are. To live life as a dreamer is to be a person who, in essence, closes his eyes on the present, remembers the past, and sees the future.

We die daily. Happy those who daily come to life as well. [George MacDonald]

House sitting a mansion on the side of a hill overlooking a city of a million people and more; every day I wake up to look at the rolling hills stretching out into the flat land covered almost completely with houses and buildings. In each of these houses lives a human being ...a human existing. People who have taught themselves and been taught to never allow themselves to dream. They accept the issued aspirations of wealth and prosperity.

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. [Edgar Allen Poe, Eleonora]

I will use one last quote; a quote that has inspired me this week to trudge on with my journey from a lonely man to a dreamer. As an artist, a poet, a mystic and a prophet, this speaks to my heart.

Loneliness can become a source of creative energy, the energy that drives us down new paths to create new things or to seek more truth and justice in the world. Artists, poets, mystics, prophet, those who do not seem to fit into the world or the ways of society, are frequently lonely. They feel themselves to be different, dissatisfied the status quo and with mediocrity; dissatisfied with our competitive world where so much energy goes into ephemeral things. Frequently, it is the lonely man or woman who revolts against injustice and seeks new ways. It is as if the fire is burning within them, a fire fueled by loneliness. [Jean Vanier, Becoming Human]

In the movie version of Les Miserables, Jean Valjean is finally captured by Javert. Just as Javert is about to shoot Jean Valjean he turns the tables, Javert slaps the stocks on himself saying, "You are free!" and then throws himself into the river. Jean walks away with the eyes of a free man, suddenly seeing the life and beauty of Paris around him; the things he never saw as a slave to his own guilt. My dream is to see the world with the eyes of a free man, with the same eyes as Chesterton and MacDonald. My dream is to shout, "You are free!" and give away the eyes of a free man.