Jesse Love 

Celestopea Times Editorial Columnist

What Are Your Dreams?

One of the most powerful motivators to take action is a belief in something greater than one’s self. Furthermore, there seems to be a powerful human instinct, an inner belief, that following the tenets of, obeying the rules of, or being associated with something greater than the individual, will make personal lives better and more meaningful as well. It is summarized by the old saying, “hitch your wagon to a star and you’ll go far”.

This something greater can take many forms, good and bad, beneficial and destructive. It often manifests as a religion. People follow all the dictates of their faith because they believe it comes from a higher source and will improve their lives while they pass their journey on Earth and significantly benefit them in the next life.

However, it is no different for the opposite extreme, an atheist. Renouncement of religion is simply another form of belief in something. A person, who claims to believe in nothing, is either seriously delusional or intellectually mendacious.

In "The Balkan Trilogy," a masterfully crafted tale set in the Balkans during  World War II, the principal character, a dedicated Marxist, is characterized by his wife as "an atheist with a religious temperament; he believes in Russia." Author Olivia Manning hit on a foundational cornerstone of human existence: We all have a need to believe, whether we believe in God, company, politics, country or diet/lifestyle choices. The compelling human motivation to have faith in something is as basic as the need for food to eat, air to breathe, and someone to love and be loved by.

Regardless of the specifics of belief, it is interesting to note that they all can lead to a destructive extremism that boils down to the believer’s conviction that only they and those who believe as they do are correct, and all other beliefs or points of view are wrong. It doesn’t matter whether the belief is religious, leftist political, rightist political, ecological stewardship, multi-national corporate culture, vegetarianism, or any other belief system.

Even the self-proclaimed righteous guardians of tolerance and diversity sometimes exhibit the intolerance and self-righteousness of the most closed-minded fundamentalist religious sects, squashing and ridiculing the free speech and thought of those with opposing points of view. Anti-government, survivalist and racial purity groups, hate practically everyone and everything, and manifest themselves with the likes of Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh or Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski. They oft times clothe their beliefs in mainstream religions while discarding inconvenient religious teachings such as love, forgiveness and mercy.

Politics have always been a hotbed of extremism and violence on both ends of the spectrum. From the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, to the concentration camps of the Nazis, to the radical leftists of 1960’s America, who explained away murder and destruction with the justification of political righteousness.

For our peace of mind, it would be convenient if we could cast those who murder and maim in the name of their beliefs as evil, freakish and demented. In some cases, this is certainly true. But studies have also shown that the perpetrators of unthinkable atrocities and genocidal mass killings including Cambodia, WW II Germany and more recently in Bosnia/Serbia clearly were committed by ordinary people. People like your next door neighbor or co-worker. Ordinary people that laugh, have families, have fun and dreams. Just like you and me. Most recently, despite the horrificness of their crime, has it struck anyone else how likeable Malvo and Muhammad, the two smiling, Washington DC snipers, appear in the photo of them together that ran on the front page of every newspaper when the story first broke?

As destructive as fervent belief can become, it can also manifest in wonderful ways that benefit both the believer and many other people, sometimes the whole world. Belief in great dreams followed by subsequent actions can unite and uplift people. Regardless of where you were on earth on July 20th, 1969, if you had a TV, you were watching in awe and humility as Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, and became the first human from Earth to step on the surface of the moon.

I remember as the TV flashed pictures from around the world of crowds of people from countries of every race, every culture, gazing in tearful wonder as an Earthman, one of their own, accomplished such an unbelievable thing. In the hearts of most people, it was neither an American accomplishment nor an American that set foot on the moon. In hearts beating in unison around the world, it was the human family of which they were a part that had accomplished the unimaginable. A part of every person that watched it was on the moon that day.

Over 40 years have passed since the national will was mustered and the country rallied around President Kennedy’s dream in 1961, to put a man on the moon before the end of that decade. You would think there would be moon bases by now, four decades later. Instead, we no longer even have the capability to send people to the moon. How can that be so? Could it be that dreams and the actions they motivate are fleeting, while convictions that motivate extremists to commit murder and mayhem are unrelenting?

The difference is in the nature of the challenge. Dreams are specific, whether they are personal, national or global. Once they have been fulfilled, such as landing on the moon, the euphoria dissipates. As in the space program, there is often regression with less intense follow through because the destination has been reached. On the other hand, extremists are on an unrelenting jihad to purge the world of that which is not like them. A goal that can never be fulfilled, thereby enabling them to maintain the passion and drive for their cause indefinitely.

How then might we forge the unifying, benevolence of inspirational dreams into a never-ending pursuit that continues to uplift and motivate from one year to the next, from one generation onward? I ask this question both in an application to each person’s individual life as well as on a larger scale of that which unifies and uplifts the human race.

It begins with a dream. A great dream. Most of us live fairly mundane existences. We yearn for something greater, but more often than not, lack the necessary passion and belief in our ability to achieve that which we desire, sufficient to motivate us to action. That’s where a great dream coupled with something or someone greater than ourselves, can become the catalyst to action and the springboard to greater heights.

Whether it is religion, politics, education, humanitarianism, life style choices or simply listening to an inspirational leader with a plan that makes sense, when we expand beyond ourselves in pursuit of our dreams, we upgrade to a vehicle more likely to take us to our destination.

Finally, there must be a series of dreams that are set from the beginning and will take us beyond our lifetime in their pursuit. That is the bridge that will allow those with great and benevolent dreams to sustain the energy of progress, just as extremists are able to sustain their energy of destruction. There will be no let down as there was in the space program because achievement of one dream is merely the stepping stone and foundation to the next preconceived dream.

Why can’t we send humans to the moon today? Because we no longer have a rocket anywhere close to the power of the immense Saturn 5 that lifted the Apollo spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and propelled it to the moon. The cost to build a comparable rocket program today is beyond NASA’s entire budget.

It could have been different. What if the moon landings were only the first dream? What if the second dream had been to build moon bases? Then the Saturn 5 rocket would never have gone out of production. What if the following dream had been to send a manned mission to Mars, beyond that to establish Mars’s bases and then to colonize both celestial bodies? Dreams that would have taken us beyond our life, extending from one generation to the next, bringing mankind wondrous new discoveries, technologies, unification and inspiration.

Zeroing into your own life…what are your dreams? Are they still sitting unfulfilled in the distant recesses of your mind? Do you take them out from time to time, dust them off, think about them with a wistful smile, and then put them back in storage?

Whether big or small, your dreams are obtainable. Do you want a new house, a better relationship, more time for your family, more freedom and choices, a new car, an extended vacation in paradise, a college degree? What are your dreams? Do you see things on a larger scale, such as a world at peace? What are your dreams? They are obtainable and sustainable.

Find someone, some company, some group or organization that shares your dream and feels by helping you to achieve your dream; it will help them to fulfill theirs. As Zig Ziegler said, “You can get anything in life you want, if you just help enough other people to get what they want”. Find this catalyst. Ignite your dreams. Follow a proven program that has helped others reach similar aspirations.

Lastly, make sure you have another dream to begin as soon as you fulfill the first. It should be an extension of the first so all the effort already expended becomes the foundation for your next leap up.

David O. McKay said, “I believe there is something great within every person, calling for something greater”. It’s time to let your greatness out and go after the life you were meant to have, with gusto!