What are you after?
Money… Success… Fame…Happiness…Dreams…Love…
We are all after money. Whomever cares not about the money has always had it, consequently has no pattern in measuring having or not having it…
Success is in our blood…The difference between success and failure is vision. “When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.”- Samuel Butler
What problems do your dreams solve? What problems will they solve in 15 years-time?
“Man has always been half-monster, half-dreamer.” – Ray Bradbury
Vision is the combination of the dreams of the dreamer and the fears of the monster. Dreamers fight for their dreams, monsters fight the reality (they dread) and shape it to their own liking. Monsters fight with their skills and claws, dreamers with their imagination. More or less monsters make sure that your dreams survive the harsh cold reality…
So travel with your dreams but never forget about the monster’s perspective. As we are all monsters, and it is far easier to make a kind person believe you are kind than make a monsterling believe in your kindness. Monsters believe in monstership…In the ancient times people believed in mythical creatures as they needed to understand the overpowering forces of nature. We, the (post)modern people, know that the monsters are us. We have all the stories, we have a whole sea of stories which is at times poisoned by non-believing, prosaic tiny sea serpents.
Or the monster might command the suffering of the dreamer.
Maybe this is depression. Not believing in your dreams and feeding them to your monster.
Art by Andrew Ferez.
She is primarily a teacher of English. Also her mind is lured by goodies like finance, economics, interest rates, the stock market, as she has a hankering for how the money is made. Nevertheless she is a dreamer on a cloud...As dreams cost nothing... On ordinary days she is a word-weaver for everything and everything that breathes. On the best of days she just follows the seasons by means of bike, skis, or roller-skates. She is grateful to all colors of the world and to people who read, smile and drop a line here, or on her email. Contributing author for 5 Medium.com publications, Spillwords.com and Anthology Volume I: Writings from the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective.
Blog de companie 
A very insightful & meaningful post, one shouldn’t ever compromise on their dreams nor should one let their fantasies corrupt their minds to such an extent that they become blind to the hard yards that one needs to invest in order to turn their dreams into reality.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you! You highlighted the gist of the story perfectly 🙂
LikeLike
Awesome!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
One of the great advantages of having a rather advanced age is that most of the struggles are behind me. The only thing I might wish for that I do not have is good health but I count myself lucky that I had it for over seven decades. I’m fortunate in having a wife whose ambitions are similar to mine and they are ‘simple’ in most respects. The biggest dilemma which confronts us at the moment is whether to move to Romania or not, a question we hope to go some way to answering during this visit.
Indeed the monsters are us; I look at what we, the human race, are doing to this beautiful place we have been given to live in and despair, be it eradicating animals, allowing millions of children to starve or filling the oceans with plastic. And the damage we do to ourselves, usually blaming others, is immeasurable. Yes, we are the monsters.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for sharing these, dear Roger ❤
May you be in better health and take good care of you and Petronela 🙂 Well, I do not want to influence you in any way but I Do love Romania, not only for the landscapes and greeneries but for its spirit. For our humour which allowed us to survive. For the abilitiy to laugh at everything and not to take ourselves too seriously. For the cosmopolitan light and the finesse of mixing the old with the new in Bucharest. Against all odds, I draw my happiness also from this city of lights 🙂
I wish I were untrue in my judgement. Yes, we are the monsters.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I liken Romanians to those little dolls with spherical bodies and a weight in the bottom (can’t remember what they are called). No matter how many times you push them over they always get up again. It’s just one reason I love them. xxx
LikeLiked by 1 person
xxx
LikeLike
This is a very well written essay.
It certainly explains a lot of things that have been going on in my life.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Christopher!
Once I put the words on paper, I have received many answers to my life’s conundrums also.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know a couple of street people whom I suspect are quite saintly. They dress in rags and stink. Most people see them as mentally ill but I tend to think of them more like the Canadian version of the Asian wanderer. Anyhow, I don’t think they are after money but most of us are concerned about it. The street people do eat out of garbage cans (McDonald’s etc) and that leftover food would not be there if not for the Capitalist system. So in a way, they are part of it too.
Your excellent illustration reminds me of another one that was used for a Carl Jung book.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember a scene. I was roller-skating on Kiseleff avenue on a winter evening. There are benches lining up the lane and on one bench there was a person without a home. He had his earthly possessions in some bags and he was holding and caressing a beautiful big book, an encyclopedia or an art book. I couldn’t look at him. Maybe I know the feeling when touching the books that belonged to my father. We are all beggars and homeless.
Thank you! These illustrations follow me around.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah we are. “Home is where the heart lies” goes an old expression.
While doing my PhD I did something of an informal observational study of street people. I walked literally for miles and got to know some, as much as one could. I found each person was unique, just as in any other station of life. So we can’t really generalize, as some might. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anyone who quotes Ray Bradbury deserves attention! As a sufferer of a dissociative disorder I know what it is to be fragmented. I am certainly a dreamer, though some of those dreams are nightmares, and there is a monster in me, well, not so much in me but in my past, a few in fact. I best not dwell on that. As a transgender woman I know what it is to feel different, so separate from ‘normal’ society that some would label me a monster.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Ray Bradbury is probably one of the few who explained to unknown through the means of the known. And we are at pains deciphering it, still.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
LikeLike