May all your dreams come true...

...Talk about a horrible curse.


I mean (forgetting for a moment that some folks have very unpleasant dreams) doesn't this wish really point to a lack of understanding as to the purpose of our dreams?


Ok, ok, I know that you're probably thinking something like "It's not meant to be taken literally dumbass, it's just a simpler way of saying 'I hope you get what you desire, or may your future live up to your hopes'", but bear with me.


It seems to me that the real value of dreams (as in 'a strongly desired goal or purpose', rather than 'a state of sleep that recurs cyclically several times during a normal period of sleep and that is characterized especially by increased neuronal activity of the fore brain and mid brain, depressed muscle tone, and rapid eye movements') is that they give us something to strive toward, to hope for, or to focus on when we are in danger of being overwhelmed by the tedium and unpleasantness of daily existence.


I'll give you an example.


I knew a lady a couple of jobs ago who was working nights because the three children she had raised alone and supplied her with five grandchildren who she was also raising alone. Her dream was to win the lottery and have a nice clean little house on a bluff overlooking the ocean, where she could be alone, and relax, and teach herself how to paint or write (it changed depending on her mood). She would be the first to admit that such an existence (if it were a reality) would be nice for a day or two, but not for a lifetime. She would also be the first to admit that the likelihood of her actually achieving this dream was somewhere on the far side of zero, but that's not the point.


The point is that the dream itself (the improbable fantasy, the impossible goal) was a part of what kept her going, even when everything else in her life seemed to be going wrong.


I'll give you another example (one that's almost universal).


Have you ever known someone who's grandest dreams were easily obtainable (like "I wanna get knocked up", or "I wanna get married", or "I wanna own a really nice car")?


Have you noticed how, once the dream is fulfilled, it is never quite what they expected?


Have you noticed how this realization seems, if only for a short time, to suck the life right out of them?


The power of the dream is its ability to inspire hope. Once the dream is realized it becomes powerless.


So, it is with this in mind that I say to you (the few truly bored individuals who have read this far) that I hope all your dreams don't come true. I hope you can manage to dream so big and so often that you will be able to spend a lifetime working towards them, hoping towards them, and pouring yourself into them. I hope that you dream to the point of distraction, and all sorts of other happy horseshit.


I hope that you can hold on to your dreams, that you can protect them from the prying eyes of those who would use them to control you, that you fulfill only a few of them, and that you never let anyone else take them away from you.


Well, it's probably past your bedtime.


Sweet dreams...