When I was a kid I had dreams. I used to bend reality like I was one of the circus strong men. Like my imagination was in shape then. You see, back then the floor really was made of lava. I was just like everyone else – I saw The world in terms of what I would like to see happen – not what actually does. The truth is when we were kids we thought everything was clear, and everything was possible. Back then we were not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything that we would like to see happen in our lives.
Back then we were ignorant of society, but ignorance isn’t abstinence. Ignorance is ignorance, it doesn’t claim to be something that it isn’t. It doesn’t know how to. It’s ignorant.
Eventually, at a certain point in our lives, we become conscious enough to allow concern for the thoughts of others. Which reminds me of a story told within Paulo Coelho’s, The Alchemist, about a baker and people dreams.
The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. “When he was a child, that man wanted to travel too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he’s an old man, he’s going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
“He should have decided to become a shepherd,” the boy said.
“Well, he thought about that,” the old man said. “But bakers are more important than shepherds. Bakers have a home, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds.”
The boy felt a pang in his heart, thinking about the merchant’s daughter. There was surely a baker in her town.
The old man continued, “In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own personal legends.”
On the race, I have had the blessing to live with forty-something other incredible individuals. Honestly, I feel as though I would contract Alexithymia if I tried to express the impact these people have had on my life. Nevertheless, these persons all started out as strangers to me. It’s weird, but when someone sees the same people every day they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. Then others want the person to change. If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. The truth is, everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
This isn’t a blog about how people are dumb, or how community is bad. This is a blog about how I learned something, and I’m not saying this is true or not, I’m just saying it’s what I learned. We are human beings who are fallible. We can be wrong. Often, we don’t know that our most cherished, deepest held, even identity forming values possess the ability to fail. Never can we know our plot holes unless we are willing to lay dogmatism down and seek out the other side.
Romans 12:16
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”
Being me there are some things I unapologetically know about myself. One being, I will never be passionate about rhythmic gymnastics. Another, as Christians we need other people, but our willingness to believe others must be stronger than our determination to dismiss. Often we think our beliefs are better than there beliefs. And we can’t agree to disagree because we think others are wrong. Which is how I now know, it’s incredibly easy to be a good person when goodness isn’t tested.
Living in community, conformity is often mistaken for friendship. But, we must recognize that Dr. Suess was right when he said, “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive that is youer than you.”
You are you. You must be brave. And your courage to be yourself must be stronger than your hunger for acceptance. People’s fear of rejection leads us to live in a world where children would rather go under the knife than wait to see who they will grow up to be. Often this is because we rarely realize that being tolerated is different than being loved. As Christians, we are called to love. Love is a currency that functions in reverse because the only way to be wealthy with it is to give more of it away. So give. Be generous. Know, “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” Finally, try. The tiniest dream you try to make happen is worth more than the biggest dream you never attempt.
