Dream On

I love to dream of different tomorrows even when I'm content with today.  I think it was Jay McDaniel, somewhere in Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism, who suggested that contentment is dangerous, a sign of stagnation and laziness. 

I don't mean dreaming of more of this and that, things I might find in a store like WalMart or Bloomingdales. Rather, I'm dreaming of different experiences, such as living in a "tiny home" (see http://books.google.com/books?id=ctbIIwjjnCMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Tny+home,+pat+foreman&source=bl&ots=VQ-VCT_6-6&sig=UmA59AThAnVOzbez4An9HgOtDKg&hl=en&ei=v9sOTefQD4Sclgf1vqTYCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false), in New Zealand, in New York City or a small town.  Or trying to get along without a car.  Or growing trout in my greenhouse.  Or building a round barn in our field, with living quarters above the livestock.  Or filling the field with vegetables and sitting at a roadside stand in my eighties, offering free produce to passersby.  Or traveling here and there to give a few dollars to people in need.

I liked the name "DREAM Act" (the Development, Relief and Education to Alien Minors Act) given to the proposed federal legislation that would have allowed illegal immigrants to earn permanent residency status and eventually citizenship after high school graduation by completing military service or college education.  Unfortunately, yesterday the U.S. Senate dashed the dreams of students who had hoped the Act would help them. 

"You're spoiled by foolish dreams," says Virginia. "So am I."

So what?  And I don't believe they're foolish or useless, or we wouldn't be living on Elk Cliff Farm. Maybe it's time for a national (or international) campaign to spread dreamfulness.