Idealism

My rambling on dreams... on hope... on ideas.

If you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing some part of you is thinking that I’m rambling more than anything. Part of you is probably laughing at all these strange idealisms that are running unchecked through my words. But if you made it this far… I’m hoping that part of you also believes that what I’m theorizing about isn’t really impossible.

 

Because it is all theory. If I had actually proven any of this the world would be an undoubtedly better place. The problem with putting theory to practice is that the influence of one seventeen year old doesn’t really stretch past friends and family. And while I do agree that every little step counts… well, I will admit that I’m really not a patient person for the most part. I’d rather take leaps and bounds then little steps.

 

So I’m putting this into a rag-tag band of letters, hoping that the words somehow form, and give way to phrases that people can actually understand. I honestly don’t know if I’m succeeding. It’s insanely difficult, placing all of these ideas on paper, because in my head they are complicated. Thoughts don’t run orderly. It’s to the point where it’s necessary for me to write it down before I even understand what I’m saying.

 

And now I am definitely rambling.

 

The thing about idealism is that without it, we’d be nowhere. Thomas Edison wouldn’t have made the electric light bulb. The wheel would have remained a big giant rock. The colonies, America, would have never been discovered. There’d be no religion, no community, and no hope. Idealisms, no matter how crazy they are, help us hope. As long as we dream, we will hope, we will believe in something no matter how outlandish that something is.

 

Believing in theories, idealisms, and dreams gives us something to look forward to.

 

If you dream, you are an idealist. If you hope, you aren’t a realist. And if someone doesn’t hope, then they must be a very unhappy person.

 

Another thing is that when Benjamin Franklin dreamed of flying a kite to see what lightening was, he really didn’t plan it out at first. When Gandhi wanted to preserve India, as first he had no idea what he was going to do to succeed. While Martin Luther King Jr. was dreaming of equality, he had no idea what steps he would take to achieve it. There is not a way to plan to prove idealism or accomplish a dream. It is impossible to look into the future.

 

So when people think you are crazy for your hopes and dreams, and when they question how you are going to accomplish these things, it’s the truth when you say you don’t know. No one knows. To accomplish my dreams I am just going to throw myself out there. I am going to let go of the rope anchoring me to “safety”, because as long as I stay safe I cannot take the risks required. Reality will grace me with obstacles that I cannot plan for no matter how hard I try. Life will gift me with help that I cannot foresee. Why plan, why try to figure things out, when in the end all that planning usually doesn’t prepare us at all?

 

“Always expect the unexpected…” what a bloody annoying phrase. If we expect it, then it isn’t unexpected anymore is it? And if it is unexpected, then there is no freaking way to expect it. Wasting all that time on the expected and unexpected just takes time away from living. I guess the best we can do is prepare ourselves enough to take the leap, then trust in our own ability to survive. Hopefully some of those repressed instincts will turn us towards the right path in this maze of rules, regulations, understood beliefs, and generally misguiding ideas.

 

Oh… hope…

 

Someday I know it will all turn out, and I will work to work this out. Brownie points if you recognize the song that came from.

 

But seriously, don’t let people tell you that you are wrong for dreaming. I don’t care what your dreams are. If you want to be a tyrannical dictator, an artist, a parent, a hobo (different from a bum), a doctor, a lawyer, the first woman president of the United States, it’s never crazy. Don’t be dissuaded by the salary, the monetary success, or the s**t you’ll get from others for doing it. Hopes and dreams should never be taken for granted. They keep us alive.

 

People seem to have forgotten that. They make fun of other’s dreams because they have none of their own. So many have forgotten the joy that accompanies imagination. Too many have left behind their “childish” hopes for “reality”, and then wonder why they are not happy. Too few have ever truly pursued their dreams. But so many of those who have pursued their dreams have captured them, or found something greater.

 

The dream we end with may be different from the one we started with. The thing is that if we don’t pursue that first one, there’s a huge chance we won’t find the second, third, forth, fifth, or final one.

 

So chase after what may look impossible to catch, because the likelihood is that it is capable of coming true. If it doesn’t, then you will not regret what you did, and you will find something as great as it at the end of the long, long rainbow.

 

Then you get to rub it pettily in everyone else’s face.

Haha, just kidding… sort of…