It's About Dreams, but it's not ALL About Dreams... part 1

You may be thinking, "What does that title even mean?" And, "What's with the picture?"

I'll tell you, eventually.

First, let's look at a poem.  I'm sure you know it, and like me, may love it already. 

So much depends upon these kinds of things. If you don't know why, I'm not sure you have a soul. Well, maybe that's a little harsh. Maybe you just don't have a heart. But for the sake of less argument, let's pretend you are not the kind of person to make sense of things only with your head (which I'm sure you aren't, anyways). 

And now the poem:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

William Carlos Williams

I love William Carlos Williams (that's him above). I love his simplicity and ability (and choice) to see poetry in the everyday. I love his conventionality: he was both a writer and a medical doctor, keeping an established practice in his hometown of Rutherford, NJ for 41 years. He was married, and seems to have had a good marriage. She read to him when he was old and had had too many strokes to read anymore. He had two kids. 

And yet, he was a prolific writer. He wrote plays, essays, translations of other works, and novels. He was also the United States Poet Laureate and eventually a Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry. And as a major figure in Art and Literature, I love his unconventionality: he doesn't seem to have led a heartbreaking life as an alcoholic, he didn't commit suicide, he didn't leave behind a slew of broken relationships.

The reason I'm mentioning him today is not because he was perfect at balancing his artistic and "regular" life, which I'm sure he wasn't, but because his life as a writer gives me hope. Maybe you can do artistic things and not leave a string of tragedy and heartache behind you. Maybe someone can pursue a dream, and not let the dream be everything, not let it be a force that absorbs the totality of a person's life, relationships, and self. Maybe you can even have more than one dream: to do art and do life well. (And learn about colons: their use, their flare, their purpose).

Williams didn't just gruel out an existence at medicine to do what he really loved either. It appears he genuinely liked being a doctor, in addition to pursuing writing. It gave him access to people at their most intimate times, birth and death, and he seems to have loved humanity and American folks. He found a true American voice from the voices that filled his life. 

Literary Critic Randall Jarrell wrote, " Williams's poetry is also characteristically honest: There is no optimistic blindness in Williams, though there is a fresh gaiety, a stubborn or invincible joyousness." 

I love that: "A stubborn or invincible joyousness." That's what I want in life and art. 

Dreams are important, but they can't be all important. Despite the common thinking that you must throw your all into your dream  (at least among creative types), don't sacrifice your self as a balanced person, your relationships, your health, your other deeply held convictions. 

Don't pursue a dream at the expense of all else.

so much depends
upon
the rest of life. 
It's about dreams, but it's not ALL about dreams. After all, a dream can't read to you when you're old.

"It's the Eye of the Tiger, it's the Thrill of the Fight..."

Sheesh. It's been almost a month since my last post, and I need a good motivational post to carry me through the rest of winter and the slumps. I don't know how it is at your home or workplace, but around here we routinely play an old 45 of "Eye of the Tiger," by the group Survivor (not so good at surviving as it would turn out). Of course, it is the iconic theme song to Rocky, as well as all the Rocky sequels 1-100.

That song, we love it around here. Some days I love it less when it's been playing for the 12th time straight while kids pretend-box each other, or run around the house in a giant, looping, never-ending race. However, you can't help feeling pumped and motivated when that song is blaring. Even Hippo 4 likes to toddle around babbling loudly and getting in the groove. 

Some of the words are actually quite deep. Well, not really. But they at least get stuck in your head and you find yourself thinking they seem kind of deep. Take this jewel for instance, "Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past / You must fight just to keep them alive." 

This is very true. How many times do we let something we care about shrivel and die because we are afraid to try, afraid to go after it. Yes, if you try you may fail, and if you don't try you won't fail,

But actually, you will.

That's what I didn't realize for so long. If you don't do anything to pursue your dreams, you are failing them and yourself. I was afraid to pursue my dream of writing because I cared so much about it. If I pursued it and failed then my dream would be dead, or so I thought. Actually, failure is rarely so total as all that. If you keep trying, changing, growing, and rethinking your dream, chances are you won't fail. If the dream is not a good fit for you, that will become apparent. Or if there are ways in which you need to grow before it can be realized, that will become apparent too. But if you never get into the ring with that contender, you'll never stand a chance at the title at all.

If you don't fight for your dream it is destined to die. 

And so who is the contender? Oh, this is a harder one to answer. But, by and large, I think we are typically our own worst enemies. Almost every day I have to fight sneaky, snarky thoughts that loom over me like an 8 foot tall Soviet with an attitude. Reaching my dream can seem impossible as the thoughts do their best to unnerve me:

 You can't write a book, you'll never fully understand the magnitude of comas and semi-colons. 

one, two, punch.

This is such a stupid idea for a novel, and your characters are like cliches from some after-school special.

ugh, dodge, block.

You don't even have your household together, Hippo 4 has his breakfast stuck in his hair, and what makes you think you can pursue a career anyways? 

and she's down, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...

But you have to pop back up. Take the beating, but keep coming back until your enemy runs out of stuff to throw at you.

Look at the sidelines and listen to the voices cheering you on. There's your couch, and all the people who are rooting for you. Don't throw in the towel. The more you ignore the thoughts and just keep plugging away, the less hold they have over you. The enemy is only as strong as you allow them to be.

Unless, of course, you're Rocky and your 8 foot tall Soviet may be an actual 8 foot tall Soviet. But even then, don't underestimate what strength a living, breathing dream can give you. It can give you that second wind in round 12. So don't give up.

Now, go on and watch it, you know you want to.