The World is Waiting

The greatest thing you can experience is achieving your greatest dream.

Not because you become happier. Not because there is constant applause. Not because everyone admires you.

The greatness of achieving a dream is having it crumble like dirt in your hands. All dreams will crumble, because they never reflect the depth of reality. In such a way, achieving a dream wakes us up with a shock.

Beyond these dreams, the world is waiting.

To dream is to discriminate and dissect reality into a single point.  In this context, a dream is defined as the involvement of oneself in the emotion and imagery of a fantasy, whilst concurrently desiring it over reality (dream and fantasy will be used interchangeably). This imagery is subconsciously composed to draw our attention, like a dangling carrot.

Dreams arise from the deepest levels of our consciousness, where we might lack something important or are plagued by toxins. Much like those that are iron deficient, who suck and chew on pieces of ice, the fantasy is inherently indirect. Chasing dreams is symptomatic, not curative.

No one teaches us this distinguishing feature. Dreams feel right, because they fill our minds with beautiful imagery. Most of the time, they are only images and the reality is starkly richer. Consider that the majority of people seek their dream job without any fathom of the reality of that lifestyle.

The reality of most jobs is richer than the original dream. Richer in emotions, energetic output, suffering etc. It is not by any means necessarily abundant in what enticed you towards it.

The individual, whether seeking fame or the scrubs of a doctor, has been seduced by a psychological element associated with the ‘lifestyle’. That particular psychological element, if it even exists, is only one side of a multi-dimensional existence.

No one would deny that there is more to life than what is supposed in writing, the media and rhetoric. Yet, people are less likely to accept that dreams are equally unrepresentative of life. It is acceptable to most that achieving our dreams is a happy ever-after. For example, achieving recognition of brilliance will never last each and every single moment that you live. It may fill little gaps in time, but it won’t stretch over into your sickness, your time in isolation or into those that have known you your whole life.

If those little moments, these little carrots are what you seek, then your mind and your body will narrow their attention towards it. You will be like a truffle pig, trained to notice the softest whiff of your dream. A truffle farm does not only contain the air of truffles, but that of every other single scent. Life does not only contain what you want, but everything else that you don’t.

Thus the day-dreamer wanders through life ignoring all that does not conform to their desires. And what shall become of all that they ignore? It shall remain invisible, unhelpful and perhaps even hated. Not for any particular reason, but simply because the individual has no use for this part of existence.

Consider a new student. They seek knowledge to expand their understanding of a specific area. That knowledge, be it cacti botany or midwifery, has always been a part of the world. For the first time in their own life, they access and comprehend that there was much more to cacti and childbirth than they ever imagined. While this information was always available, it hadn’t until this point been of value to the individual to seek it.

The world is always waiting to be experienced. Yet, the dreamer dares not explore it. The risk of uncovering that all their energy thus far has gone towards an imaginary carrot is too great.

Fame and fortune are lies. That is an objective truth. Yet in study after study, the youth of the world rate these as their greatest goals in life. They cannot be blamed for seeking something that appears entirely pleasurable and self-serving. The alternative is experiencing and living in the world.

The world is both the worst nightmare and the greatest dream. It alternates rapidly and chaotically between these states. It discriminates, tortures, tricks, decapitates, poisons, dissolves and desecrates all. It is not simply an ecstatic orgy of loving flesh, but also a cannibalism of the weak.

It seems unlikely that one would not prefer to be jet-setting between cocktails by tropical sunsets and indoor swimming pools. The tropical sunset may be stained with colonialism and the cocktail poured by mental health’s dark secret, but your dream need not include this.

Your dreams are an escape, not just from horror, but also from everything else. As long as every other element of the world remains undesired, they will be exploited. The people that are not wanted will be exploited, the land that is not treasured will be exploited and the earth will fade away.

Each day the entire world calls out. It may echo in the voice of a human, animal or machine. The world is waiting to be explored and accepted.