Sunday, January 06, 2008
I'm a hopeless dreamer
I like to daydream about an utopian existence. Reality is often so tiresome and mundane, I find small moments of relief in letting my imagination wander off into what could be, or more accurately where I would like to be. These imaginary worlds are not much different than the one we live in. Mother Nature knew what she was doing, so there's not much I would change about the stage on which humanity plays out its repetitious dramas. Even the people there aren't drastically different. For the most part, the only difference is that people are more in touch with what I understand 'good' to be. They speak more honestly, act less selfishly, and behave more courteously. They sincerely care about each other and themselves. They recognize that the differences between us are little more than trivial details and that the divisions caused by those differences are purely imagined.
Of course, these are only daydreams, and the world as I live it always finds a way to interrupt, but I feel better having let my imagination take a stroll through another pseudo-fairy tale. Of course, that is not reality. In reality, people quite often treat each other like shit. Being treated politely and courteously in this world is rare enough to be noteworthy, which is only noteworthy because it has always been this way. People being nice to people is as rare today as it was eons ago. Again, I am baffled by our species inability to make real progress in our collective sense of kindness and empathy.
Whatever this place is, it sure as hell ain't utopia, but songs like Lennon's Imagine and Richie Havens' Freedom ad lib from Woodstock always put me in the mood to get lost in imagination. If not for these occasional escapes, I would think things might become unbearably depressing. Between the liars, the cheaters, and the outright crazies, you have to focus on the exceptions to avoid being overwhelmed by the rule. I have this theory, or rather I have adopted my own version of other peoples' theories, about fear and how powerful it is as a motivator, but that's something for another time. I'm not sure it is within my intellectual capabilities to express said theory in a coherent, concise fashion anyway...
Oh, for the strength to stir them!
The power to cure them, or heart to soothe them,
so that we might bask in the glow of angels' eyes
beneath skies unburdened billowing obstructions;
all of us bladed grass nourished together as one
in a place unknown to these lost generations -
free to grow straight and strong.
Free - to love Earth, Sun, and Moon unconditional,
to love Life and to live Love unencumbered
by the failure of words uttered aloud
with only the fields, trees, and insects to hear them.
Sacred, subtle sentences that fire the conscious
describing a vision, a heartfelt faith in possibility -
what could be, what might be, elegant wishes
without fear to restrain their beautiful conjurations.
With no gods to divide and conquer such tiny musings,
only the powerful alchemy between heart and soul,
the unstoppable momentum in mind and body,
these parts find freedom to form mystical wholes -
something more, something less, complex simplicity
in the meandering vein of a leaf, limb, or land.
United, aligned, and willing to brave the maelstrom.
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Now playing: Richie Havens - Freedom (Live at Woodstock)
via FoxyTunes
Labels: life
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