We are the Dream

                I’m reading this book called Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou.  It’s her third autobiography.  She leaves San Francisco and decides to move back to New York City to work on her writing.  There she sees Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak and is so moved that she creates a play called “Cabaret of Freedom.”  Then she meets him and begins working for the SCLC, which is the part I’m on now.

                A week ago I rushed to class to reserve the projector because I had learned the day before that it would be the 50^th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech.  My college writing professor, who was the head of the department, said it was the single greatest speech in American history.  I got to work before the doors opened, rushed upstairs to the sign-out sheet, and saw that a woman named Barbara had reserved the projector from 11:15 until 1:45.  I would later learn that she was using it to show the speech to her students, and that she had been there in person.  I don’t know why she needed it for 2 hours to show an 18 minute speech, but that’s how it was.  Since her name is “Barbara” I let it go and embraced the poetry.  Our Grandma Barbara was a teacher who always encouraged her students to work against injustice, prejudice and intolerance, and to always put one’s self in the other person’s shoes.

                The “dream” speech is still relevant.  Some people assume just because people of all races enjoy status, money and praise as celebrities, athletes and high ranking government officials that all racial barriers and prejudice have disappeared.  The past month I’ve seen several Facebook posts of Morgan Freeman saying the only way to end racism is to “stop talking about it”.  I think what he meant was that he doesn’t want to be singled out for his race.  Every time you point out that he can help with civil rights or ending racism, you’re setting him apart from the crowd.  But that doesn’t mean you just ignore the fact that people still have hate, mistrust or at least a general uneasiness around people with opposite skin colors, so much so that there are still clear statistical divides when it comes to poverty, justice and opportunity.  That won’t make it go away.  You improve the world by approaching everyone you meet with the same attitude of openness and good will that you would bring to anyone else.  This includes skin color, religion, gender, class and any other difference.  You’re talking to the universe, and if you listen, you just might learn something important.

I told my boss that I wanted to show the speech, and she said they were using the projector for new student orientations from 9:45 until 11:15.  Class starts at 9:30, and so many students come in a few minutes late that I knew it would be a problem.  So I set up the projector anyway, taped a note on the door that said, “NO TALKING, SPEECH IN PROGRESS” and wrote on the board “NO TALKING, NO PHONES” in enormous letters.  I can tolerate it when I’m leading class, but not for those 18 minutes.  I began the speech right at 9:30, and my students from around the world were moved by his epic words.  As soon as it was finished I told them to wait a moment as I returned the projector, and my boss was waiting at the top of the elevator.  Then I ran back downstairs for the explanation.

                Right before I entered my class, the most experienced teacher mentioned to me that the “I Have a Dream” part of King’s speech was actually ad-libbed.  Apparently he had given a similar speech, or practiced it, with a smaller audience, and someone yelled to “tell them about the dream,” and that’s when he launched into it without preparation.  My audience was smaller, my words less meaningful and my place in history much less effective and moving, but I had a very diverse crowd.  So I did what I do best: improvise.  I had originally planned to simply talk about the terrible history of race relations in America, which I did, but I realized as I got going that the theme was much larger.

                King’s speech wasn’t just about white colored skins and black-colored skins eating dinner together.  In a way, it’s merely symbolic, as those supposed shades of skin are the opposites on the color spectrum.  If we can get along, everything in between falls into place as well.  American slavery didn’t cause racial strife.  Hatred brewed from misunderstanding between peoples with differences, whatever they are, is as old as time itself.  It comes from fear of the unknown, because sometimes the unknown, which is everything, hurts you, or kills you, or does it to some part of the unknown that you have come to love.  It comes from insecure egos which fear the unknown of their own worth amongst the vast universe.

                I think that was King’s dream: people will stop being afraid of life, which is always unknown, and be brave, understanding and truthful enough to know that love is more powerful, pleasurable and useful than fear when it comes to the universal human journey of improving the quality of experience.

                I believe that is a worthwhile dream.  It doesn’t mean we don’t have fear.  It means we face our fears.

                I do not know the future.  My fear of the future is that humans become more zombie-like and less interesting.  More passive, more boring, less adventurous, too comfortable for growth and less willing to embrace, admit and create beauty.

                I dream that the enthusiasm, passion and creativity manifested by millions upon millions of humans who I know are out there continues to live through the hearts and imaginations of generations to come.  I dream that we will use our technological advances for furthering knowledge, wisdom, imagination and creativity, as opposed to pointless trivia or loose ended news reports with no threads to deeper meaning, which does nothing to advance a deeper feeling of the world.  I dream that we will use progress to expand glorious feelings of ecstatic existence instead of the over-represented lame laughs at the stupidity of humanity.

                On top of it all, I dream that poetry, magic and exhilaration will be recognized and experienced by truly deserving individuals, who I believe to be everyone, but I suppose the universe delivers as it deems necessary.  A world filled with peace would certainly be better than excruciating pain and heartbreak, but a complacent world without challenges, poetry in action and great leaps of the imagination is almost as dreadful.

                If you don’t believe in the greater possibilities, they cannot happen.  The world is mysterious.  Don't limit the excellence of existence.

                If you don’t exert because you fear failure, then nothing changes.

                If you fall back on old assumptions and negative patterns of thought, whether it’s “I can’t” or “it’s all those people’s fault,” then you hold yourself back from the greater joy that awaits us all.

               

                Dream the world is loving, wise, creative magic poetry... and WE WILL BE.