However I could never do that, now could I. So here is my try at a philosophical piece. Hope it has structure, substance and relevance

The purpose of hopes and dreams, is there really one?

The aim of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it.

William Faulkner

When talking about dreams I mean dreams as aspirations rather than the visions seen in the midnight hours when your eyes are closed and you’re tightly tucked in. In a sense there are several questions buried beneath the topic up above… Do dreams ever come true? Is it possible for hopes and dreams to have a purpose if they never come true?

As a child one cannot help but dream. The world seems like a pool full of opportunities where fairy tales come true, anything and everything is possible. No complications. As we grow we get our hearts broken, deal with disappointments and the realization that the opportunities we have are most likely limited by our colour, creed, social standing, education and where we were lucky or unlucky to be born.

I guess being an adult is signified by the acceptance that your shortcomings are caused by the inappropriateness and cruelty of the world and your physical and social circumstances.

If a human’s ability to hope and dream is what keeps us waking up each morning. Wouldn’t it be correct to deduce that depression signifies the loss of the ability to believe that what is wanted can be had or that events occurring in ones life will turn out advantageously; the loss of imagination, creative visualization which is basically what dreams are?

It seems that hopes and dreams are what keep us keeping on as humans.

What Dreams May Come?

As the story of Pandora’s jar(box) tells of Pandora who was the first woman on earth. Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, to create her and he did, using water and earth. The gods endowed her with many talents; Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo music, Hermes persuasion, and so forth. Hence her name: Pandora, “all-gifted”.

When Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Epimetheus, Prometheus’ brother. With her, Pandora had a jar which she was not to open under any circumstance. Driven by her natural curiosity, Pandora opened the jar, and all evil contained escaped and spread over the earth. She hastened to close the lid, but the whole contents of the jar had escaped, except for one thing which lay at the bottom, and that was Hope.

Hope weakly left the jar but its effect was far more potent than any of the major evils that were released.

So keep keeping on, living in the delusions called hopes and dreams that keep the world looking bright and cheery; fighting off world weariness.

Hopes and dreams are our superheroes, in the end they are all we have I guess.

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul,

the blueprints of your ultimate accomplishments.

Napoleon Hill

Vukosi’s Note: When finally posting this, it reminded me about a paper I once wrote on dreams. So initially this was not going to be published, but here it its.