When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? To surrender dreams … this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness and, the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
DON QUIXOTE
During the Gulf War, Gregory Levey, aged twenty-one, walked onto the Common in Amherst, Massachusetts, set down a cardboard sign that said PEACE, stuffed his clothes with newspapers, poured paint thinner over his body, and set himself on fire. He died within two minutes. On that same day, Iraq had announced that there had been 20,000 Iraqi deaths so far in the war.
For some of us, it is a daily struggle to keep hope alive when our dream is of peace. Abbie Hoffman and Mitch Snyder both left us this message. It’s hard to keep any dream alive that includes harmony and justice, even a dream that sees only the fulfillment of basic human needs for everyone in the greater family. But we need to do everything we can to keep these dreams alive, because the odds are against them. They are not something static, something to cling to; they are alive and changing, and we need to stay flexible and change with them.
Our dreams are the reason we act. Our visions of a better world give direction and meaning to our lives and our deaths. Keeping the dream alive keeps us alive, awake to our senses and our souls, to cold water, the underfoot crunch of a country road, the smell of summer honeysuckle, and the feeling of an open heart. We all have our vision of a world in which we’d like to live. When we are aware of this vision and yearn to bring it to life, compassionate action makes sense, right opportunities more often present themselves, and it is easier to be renewed when the dreams seem to have turned into nightmares.
Martin Luther King’s dream still awakens us with its power. “I have a dream that one day men will rise up and come to see that they are made to live together as brothers. I still have a dream that one day the lion and the lamb will lie down together.” His dream was inspired by the dream of Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” And John Lennon’s life and ours were inspired by his sweet dream: “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man.”
Dreams lead us to act with boldness and love. That they may be impossible dreams doesn’t matter. They are not goals; they are the inspiration within each act as we move toward the vision. The cause and the effect, the means and the end, are not separate; they are one. We need to embrace the impossibility of achieving a world that has no suffering in it and yet work for change at the same time. The Buddhists say, “Sentient beings are numberless, and I vow to save them.” How can this be? We find out only in the action.
Having such a dream doesn’t mean that we should deny the present as it is; on the contrary, it means that we see things just as they are, including the obstacles and difficulties, yet act as if the realization of our dream is possible. It was because Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mohandas Gandhi knew their own hearts and the hearts of their people that they had their dreams. If Don Quixote had not had his dream, if he had let the rational skeptics around him take it from him, he would never have brought his loving-kindness and wisdom into the lives of the people of La Mancha or into our own. His vision came to life in his actions, and they revealed the hidden truth, which was filled with humor and joy.
Compassionate action is a way to keep the dream vital, present, breathing. If you need to get in closer touch with that dream, get out your handmade notebook or sit in front of your computer, and begin to put it into words. The words will be only a finger pointing at the moon, but they will help. Imagine that “better world” and what it would be like; it will tell you how to get there. Notice everything about it; if everyone in your perfect world has an automobile, and you begin to wonder how this could happen, you may learn a lot about the distribution of resources on the planet; if the grass in your vision world is green, you may be drawn to involvement in the development of alternative fuels, controls on toxic pesticides, or any of so many interrelated actions that will allow grass to continue to be green. Keep writing. Is everyone in this dream world getting enough to eat? How can this happen? Are there weapons systems? Does AIDS exist? Has the lion lain down with the lamb? Is color still a barrier that closes hearts and keeps people in prison? Every detail of your vision is important.
Lead with your dream. Let it be present in every act. It’s what Gandhi was reminding us when he said, “Ask if your next act is of any value to the poorest person you know.” That came from his dream. What will come from ours? Just imagine.