The Semi-possible Dream

The Semi-Possible Dream

One of my favorite songs is The Impossible Dream, from The Man of LaMancha. It is very inspirational and uplifting. For a moment, I feel as I am at a great opera house singing along with the recording.

I like to think that I too can achieve the high ideals that this song entails: “to try when you’re arms are too weary . . . to reach the unreachable star.” Yet often I seem to mire in the mundane; to get lost in the daily trials; to stop short of the goal.

What is it that causes a dream to become achievable? Or, more to the point, how can a dreamer- - who has high goals and objects, who desires to reach as far as is capable—make the dream come true?

                Daydreaming by adults is frowned upon. We are to be at work, living rationally within our means, neither flighty nor chasing after novelty. But dreaming produces vision. And as the world knows, true vision is often missing or distorted.

                On a personal level as well as on the public level the routine pervades our days. The news is full of stories of distress where people just move from one event to the other—disconnected and uninspired.  It is hard to see how dreams can come true.

                And then there are those skeptics—the ones that tell everyone that life is to be endured and suffered. That this is all there is. These exist within the church, the school and throughout the land. They are unhappy and do not dream.  And so, they want to squelch dreams.

                Yet these are ultimately just obstacles. Dreamers dream. That part within us does not conform nor grow weary. It is our oxygen-- our fuel that keeps us going.  To stop dreaming is to stop living.

                My dreams may appear impossible—no doubt some are. I doubt that everyone will travel with jetpacks strapped to our backs. But many dreams are possible, if persistence, patience and humility continue. Thus dreams may not be Impossible, but rather semi-possible.