DREAM

​“Dream, that's the thing to do…Dream, and they might come true.” — Johnny Mercer

As children we’re often told what we can’t do: “You can’t do this, you can’t do that; sit down, shut up!” But with magic even the impossible is possible.

When I was a young boy I saw the magician David Copperfield fly through the air like a bird! He made the Statue of Liberty Disappear! He walked through The Great Wall of China! This man wasn’t doing what we what he wasn’t supposed to do—he was doing what humans are not supposed to be capable of doing!  That’s how I knew even from a young age that I wanted to be a magician.  I wanted to help show others that even the impossible can become possible if approached in the right way. 

My parents supported me in this dream. My mother made a cape for me and my father gave me a top hat, and he even made a magic wand for me out of a wooden dowel painted black with a couple of white furniture leg caps on either end. I’d often run around the neighborhood waving the wand and chanting “ABRACADABRA! HOCUS POCUS!” My neighbors thought I was crazy, but I had the last laugh when one day the person I was pretending to be became the person that I am, because on that day I became a magician. It was June 11, 1996 at Warren Community Elementary School; I was just 12 years old and I became a magician by performing my very first magic show. 

That’s the power of a good Dream.  It’s been said that nothing happens but first a dream, and I believe that’s true.  Unless we take a step back and look at life for not just what we have and what has always been, but rather for what could be, nothing new will come to be.
 
​There are many things we can dream about. Things we want to do, places we want to go, things we want to have, people we want to meet; we can even dream about the influence we have on the world, how we want to make the word a better place, and legacy that we leave when our time has come. There’s a world of possibilities, but remember, nothing happens but first a dream.

During the summer of 2017 my good friend Andy Lightning went on a road trip across the United States filming his documentary I Am An American Dream. Despite all our differences, the film highlighted a collective overwhelming desire for happiness.  The film asserted that:
 
“Achieving individual dreams can only be actualized when we make being happy the dream of the American collective by the collective.”

In other words, we all want to fulfill our dream of living the life that would make us happy, and we will all have a better chance of achieving those dreams if we aim to work together rather than against each other.
 
REFLECTION
What’s your dream?  Why is it important to you?  Are you actively pursuing it? Or are you idly waiting?  What can you do today to move yourself closer to achievement?  And, just as important, what can you do to keep your dream alive during the pursuit? After all, if a dream isn’t fun and rewarding then it’s not a dream at all—it’s a nightmare!