Deferred Dreams

Randomly, I find patterns in the kinds of articles I read. This week the theme seems to be dreams. Pursuing dreams, shattered dreams. I stumble on articles that talk about people who find the courage to pursue their passion. Articles that question the worth of a life lived without passion. Often I have found that these recurrent themes occur when my subconscious seems to be searching for it. Or philosophically one could say that “when the student is ready, the teacher appears”.

So idly perusing these instigators for change, I wonder if people world over feel this kind of restlessness. The itch to pursue something different every so often. If not, does that make me a basket case?

While it is romantic and almost idyllic to imagine my obituary to read “Someone who pursued her dreams”, I wonder about deferred dreams. The ones that sit at the back of your brain waiting for school to be over, mortgages to be paid, retirement funds to be adequate. How many people dust off those old forgotten dreams and pursue them?

Will I? Will you? Are you pursuing your dreams right now?

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2 responses to “Deferred Dreams”

LG

July 20, 2012 at 5:59 am

I have asked this question to myself and been terribly disturbed with the answer, which is “do I have any dreams at all?”. Not in the hopeless, miserable sense, but merely pragmatically – what if I don’t have any dreams and that I am ok with the present (Thank God), and that I am ok with whatever the future has to offer (as long as it is peaceful)? I have some duties to fulfill, which I will, but other than that, there is no dream of something, or an ambition to achieve or even a bucket list. It would be nice to do things, like watch the sun rise over the Bay of Bengal, stay in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet, or paint a huge glass painting of the Pattabhishekam, but its ok if I can’t do those too, because the monastery or painting are there inside of me as well.

My ambitious husband often says “you are dead when you don’t dream”; I feel alive enough. I’d love to elevate my lack of dreams to “zen”, but that would be delusional as well.

Ah well, the comment turned out longer than the post ! Like I said, this particular question and my answer have disturbed me for quite a while..

Reply
1. EnKay
  
  August 1, 2012 at 2:57 pm
  
  LG, reading this comment reminds me of Saathi. He is like that. Content and in the moment all the time. No dreams, no ambition. Nothing. Just at peace and happy with his life as is except for more tennis may be.
  
  I guess there is no real answer. It is rhetorical.
  
  Reply

Deferred Dreams

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