This is the collaborative journal of W.C. Chambers and J.R. Bowman. Read. Wonder. Reply. Thanks for stopping by.
Sunday, November 06, 2005,8:53 AM
Remnants and Redemption: To Soli w/care
The following is a letter to Soli H from J Archer conserning the chasing of dreams. It is divided into two parts: Remnants and Redemption. Remnants is aimed specifically at Soli but the reader can identify with it's contents. Redemption, on the other hand, is written for an audience. An open question and an open theory to think about and perhaps discuss. My aim in this letter is to inspire as well as comfort those who have quit believing in themselves and have settled in contentless mediocrity. I hope you enjoy.
Remnants
I remember several years ago when the world was a different place. Not different on a large scale but different on a personal basis. When we were still in high school and graduation was anticipated but far far away. We had dreams then, just as we do now, but our dreams were different then. We could do anything then. I remember you wanted to go to art school (which you did) and write then sell a screenplay, short story, or poem or two. You wanted to be an actor. You had this glamorized outlook on the future. Right now you should be making movies or videogames. Instead you can barely afford to see anything and don’t have the time to play a game. Your dreams have begun to fade but at least you have managed to hold onto it this far.
I remember my dream as well. I would get my associates then head to the Atlanta Fight Academy to later become a fight choreographer and stunt man. But life got in the way. Three years, a bum wrist, and 60lbs later, here I am standing in the same spot I stood five years ago…static. My dreams have faded and I have put everything I loved on the shelf to collect dust. From time to time I walk by it and say to myself, “those days were good, I could have been something then”. Please, my friend, do not fall into this trap.
We both know of the men in middle age who suffer crisis about their lives and men in old age who instead of looking back on their lives with integrity look back on it with despair. For many the burden of jobs and family, social pressures and bad luck have taken their toll, destroying the dreams they once had. I hear them and so do you. The “I want“ statement. “I want to…get back into shape, volunteer, play the guitar, learn a language, write a novel, open a business, visit Europe, tutor a child, read more, eat right, etc, etc”. The noise from these voices is deafening. But still these people continue, as I have, to accept their fates and submit to the will of reality.
Wisdom beyond your years is a gift only if you are willing to embrace understanding. As a token I will help you to understand one thing. We are not gods. There is not enough time nor energy to conquer everything. An acceptance of one’s own limitations does not also mean an acceptance of one’s own failure. Those who succeed in life, that is, those who are able to fulfill their dreams are those who have clearly defined and narrowed their wishes down to only one or two goals. Focus on the one or two things and let nothing else distract you from it. This is my only advise to you.
I have had to alter my dreams, my goals, my ambitions. But you are still capable of fulfilling what you set out to do. I trust that you have the ability to make it. You have a real talent and need to hone it, believe in yourself, and let nothing stand in your way.
Redemption
Man is not God and he never will be. But when in history has this simple fact ever stopped man from trying to become more than what he has been made to be? A dream is ambition born in fantasy. A goal is ambition born in reality. It is nearly impossible for the two to cross over. For this to happen man needs to stop being man and become like God. However, the true god will never let this happen unless man accepts his mortality. What I mean by this is that man needs to be better than man in the absence of pride or put simply more human than human.
Have you ever died in a dream? Not many people have, and I don’t know of any except for myself. Urban legend says that if you die in a dream then you will die in real life but I will tell you what really happens. Dreams are life-like, they feel so real and when you die you really think that it is happening to you. You can feel the pain of what kills you, which is only for a second but after that there is nothing. This is not a remark on the afterlife, about that I have no clue. But when I say there is nothing I mean that the dream has ended. There is nowhere for the dream to continue because you are dead yet at the same time your mind is still in a dream like state. So for several minutes (or until you realize that you are awake and not dead) you sit there in darkness rethinking your life, repenting your sins, and praying for the safety of those you love. When you wake up life has new meaning. You know it was just a dream and yet at the same time you know how you would have reacted had you died. It is as if God has given you new meaning and you have been re-born.
If reality can kill a dream, and the dream is truly gone in fantasy, then if reality dies in a dream can it truly be gone in life? After waking up one is re-born, which is to say their old world has passed away, that being an old reality. What is reborn is a new world, a new reality, and in this there are bound to be new dreams, ambitions, and goals. In this way the fantasy world and the real world are one. To realize in yourself that limitations are only a boundary between dreams and reality and that you personaly are capable of pushing those boundries is the first step in becoming more than man.
So to each person who has given up on a dream I say die with it so that you may be re-born without the pressures you have put upon yourself. Go! Get in shape, write that novel, learn that language, fulfill your every want and desire. Only you can push the boundaries. Only you and noone else.
Remnants
I remember several years ago when the world was a different place. Not different on a large scale but different on a personal basis. When we were still in high school and graduation was anticipated but far far away. We had dreams then, just as we do now, but our dreams were different then. We could do anything then. I remember you wanted to go to art school (which you did) and write then sell a screenplay, short story, or poem or two. You wanted to be an actor. You had this glamorized outlook on the future. Right now you should be making movies or videogames. Instead you can barely afford to see anything and don’t have the time to play a game. Your dreams have begun to fade but at least you have managed to hold onto it this far.
I remember my dream as well. I would get my associates then head to the Atlanta Fight Academy to later become a fight choreographer and stunt man. But life got in the way. Three years, a bum wrist, and 60lbs later, here I am standing in the same spot I stood five years ago…static. My dreams have faded and I have put everything I loved on the shelf to collect dust. From time to time I walk by it and say to myself, “those days were good, I could have been something then”. Please, my friend, do not fall into this trap.
We both know of the men in middle age who suffer crisis about their lives and men in old age who instead of looking back on their lives with integrity look back on it with despair. For many the burden of jobs and family, social pressures and bad luck have taken their toll, destroying the dreams they once had. I hear them and so do you. The “I want“ statement. “I want to…get back into shape, volunteer, play the guitar, learn a language, write a novel, open a business, visit Europe, tutor a child, read more, eat right, etc, etc”. The noise from these voices is deafening. But still these people continue, as I have, to accept their fates and submit to the will of reality.
Wisdom beyond your years is a gift only if you are willing to embrace understanding. As a token I will help you to understand one thing. We are not gods. There is not enough time nor energy to conquer everything. An acceptance of one’s own limitations does not also mean an acceptance of one’s own failure. Those who succeed in life, that is, those who are able to fulfill their dreams are those who have clearly defined and narrowed their wishes down to only one or two goals. Focus on the one or two things and let nothing else distract you from it. This is my only advise to you.
I have had to alter my dreams, my goals, my ambitions. But you are still capable of fulfilling what you set out to do. I trust that you have the ability to make it. You have a real talent and need to hone it, believe in yourself, and let nothing stand in your way.
Redemption
Man is not God and he never will be. But when in history has this simple fact ever stopped man from trying to become more than what he has been made to be? A dream is ambition born in fantasy. A goal is ambition born in reality. It is nearly impossible for the two to cross over. For this to happen man needs to stop being man and become like God. However, the true god will never let this happen unless man accepts his mortality. What I mean by this is that man needs to be better than man in the absence of pride or put simply more human than human.
Have you ever died in a dream? Not many people have, and I don’t know of any except for myself. Urban legend says that if you die in a dream then you will die in real life but I will tell you what really happens. Dreams are life-like, they feel so real and when you die you really think that it is happening to you. You can feel the pain of what kills you, which is only for a second but after that there is nothing. This is not a remark on the afterlife, about that I have no clue. But when I say there is nothing I mean that the dream has ended. There is nowhere for the dream to continue because you are dead yet at the same time your mind is still in a dream like state. So for several minutes (or until you realize that you are awake and not dead) you sit there in darkness rethinking your life, repenting your sins, and praying for the safety of those you love. When you wake up life has new meaning. You know it was just a dream and yet at the same time you know how you would have reacted had you died. It is as if God has given you new meaning and you have been re-born.
If reality can kill a dream, and the dream is truly gone in fantasy, then if reality dies in a dream can it truly be gone in life? After waking up one is re-born, which is to say their old world has passed away, that being an old reality. What is reborn is a new world, a new reality, and in this there are bound to be new dreams, ambitions, and goals. In this way the fantasy world and the real world are one. To realize in yourself that limitations are only a boundary between dreams and reality and that you personaly are capable of pushing those boundries is the first step in becoming more than man.
So to each person who has given up on a dream I say die with it so that you may be re-born without the pressures you have put upon yourself. Go! Get in shape, write that novel, learn that language, fulfill your every want and desire. Only you can push the boundaries. Only you and noone else.
