"Dream On"
"Never lose your laugh. " "Don't let Satan steal your joy. " "Keep that smile. "
I was always confused by phrases like this when I was in high school. Now I know why. Smiling comes naturally to the young who know nothing of the impossibilities of life. Life was good, no matter what happened. Now I see that the grown-ups were warning me of impending disaster. They were saying, Your life will inevitably fall apart. When it does, keep smiling. A very ominous prediction. (In truth, my life never fell apart. All normal things came into it, like heartbreak from a first love, deception, misleadings, lies. But that is all a natural part of becoming a part of this world. Perhaps instead of looking at it like "Your life will fall apart, when it does, stay true to God," it should be portrayed as the right of passage into adulthood. I used to shrink in fear at what might be The Thing that happens to me. There is naught to fear. To most people, only the natural things of life will occur. Gaining a job, the loss of a job. Gain of money, loss of money. Having someone's love, losing that person's love. It's all natural and need not be given the pleasure of having the negative side of these aspects emphasized. These curses need not be put on the young, for they will happen naturally enough.
Encourage them that life is how you see it. You can see these natural happenings as your life falling apart or as the doors to the rights and privileges of adulthood opening. Adults know how to get themselves through these obstacles without losing their desire to live. This attitude is what should be taught to the young, not that disaster will come, but how to get through it. Why do we try to douse their light as teenagers when we've encouraged them to dream and imagine as children. The teen years are the most powerful time for encouragement because they are at an age when they can do something about their dreams. Tell them that even with a college education, it is difficult to get a hold in the world, so here is how you do it. Let's give them something useful for their adult lives instead of depressing them and squelching their dreams. And instead of saying, There will come a day--, let's tell them, There may come a day when you want to give up, when the world is dark, when you think your dreams can't come true. On that day, remember all the excitement you had about life when you were a child and choose not to let anything make you put that excitement away.
Dream on!
"Dream On" by Aerosmith
