Dreams

AS I set about preparing dinner yesterday, I listened to "Saturday Live" on BBC Radio 4. So much of the programme seemed to be about dreams, in various forms, & their importance.

As the day I passed I couldn't help returning to the idea. Dreams are important. Life without them has little value. It is the dreams, the hopes, the aspirations that keep you going through the inevitable bad patches that come to you in life. It is the dreams, hopes, aspirations that lift you when all around looks grim.

Often the dreams are more important, more valuable, than the reality. So often a dream can be fulfilled but leave you unsatisfied, if not positively disappointed. It is the dreaming part of the process that is so important.

Part of the difficulty of being depressed is that you have no dreams. The world is just black. There is no spark of light bringing hope.

I can't help thinking that if the recent riots were indeed a reflection of disgruntlement in society, maybe it is those dreams, whatever they are, that are missing. People cannot see a better society, any way their lives can realistically stand a chance of being improved. If that is the case I cannot help thinking the proposed eviction of rioters & their families from social housing is going to help matters. Presumably even to be in social housing these are people with little money. I cannot see how making them homeless is going to help. They will have even more cause for despair & anger with the system in which they must live in such circumstances.

The wonderful thing about dreams is that you don't have to have money or status. Dreams can be about meeting new friends, about small everyday things like a good meal, about the possibility of seeing a new bird or flower appear in your surrounds. Above all they're about some improvement, no matter how small, in the quality of your life. 

Dream on.