life is but a dream

… one shouldn't have to wake up from.

Get born, repeat the same patterns as everyone before you, with minor deviations and hardly any evolution, day in and day out. Slow down and add some patina as the years go by, and before you know it life (as we know it) – with or without melodic repe­ti­tions and the odd disso­nances – is com­ple­ted. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

You started out with very little, and what you was given and picked up along the way, may have been enough to get by on, or it may have been so much that it loaded you down.
Either way; when your time is up, you will leave this world with even less than you entered with. That will have to do, as that is as much as any of us can hope to end up with.
And, if anybody noticed that you're gone, some are sure to say you had a good life … as if they knew any­thing that did not affect their own lives.

Live your dreams right now – while you can, as time-machines are hard to come by these days.

The above is obviously right; you can not go back and do any of it over again, so you better make the most out of your dreams while you can. Putting them off for later is also quite risky, as that “later” may never come.
Just keep in mind that you won't be able to take any of it with you when you go, and you should have it all well covered.

why leave good dreams behind?

Beats me why some think we should quit dreaming as we grow up, as in nearly all walks of life one can keep on dreaming – or planning if you like – while covering all that needs our atten­tion in “real” life. Maybe some of us are just better at multi­tasking than others? Or maybe we priori­tize differently?

One of the worst traps we humans can get caught in, is the (quite common) belief that others have come up with better and more worthy goals than we have ourselves. Makes no sense for indi­vid­uals to waste time and energy on copying other people's dreams and goals more or less verbatim as if they were parts of pensum in school, when we can dream up and culti­vate our own pretty much from scratch and just catch them before they fly away.

Even quite incom­plete dreams of our own making, are usually heaps better for us than pro­jec­tions made up by others. Nobody has any­thing on our very own dream­works, regard­less of how well-com­posed and impres­sive those “readymade” or “implanted” dreams may sound.

Sure, one may end up dreaming one's life away, but if it is a good dream and others don't get hurt, then why not? Dreaming may beat the old thread­mill some people – for reasons unbeknownst to this author – think we all should run around in from birth until we die.
And, if nothing else; a well-composed set of dreams may make parti­ci­pation in the rat-race a lot easier for the indi­vidualist.

the meaning of life…

… is – literally – whatever you want it to be. At least until you change your mind on the matter and it becomes some­thing else. Choices, choices … only limited by your imagination.
You may share opinions on the matter at hand with others, and you may seek suit­able “echo chambers” for con­fir­ma­tion and support. Some seek reli­gion in one form or another, some seek science, and others seek “some­thing else”.

The urge to be “social com­mu­nity members” – on and/​or off line – is pretty universal, so most likely some forms for con­nec­tions to others with reason­able similar views will either exist or have to be set up – if only in your dreams.
Seriously; you may end up in a social group with members you don't share much if any­thing with. Chances are that you want to stay con­nec­ted anyway, simply because you need the feeling of belonging. Can get pretty compli­cated and may ruin all your dreams, so take care.

Hope you end up feeling comfortable with your chosen “meaning of life”. Life may become a true night­mare both for you and those around you if you don't.

what we know so far…

Life presents so many questions, and so few defi­ni­tive answers. This is the status at present, not improved in the slightest by “scien­ti­fic con­sen­sus” and other “settled matters” any­body (especially characters in politics) claim to represent. Statements like the above, are of course meant to stifle all sensible discus­sions about compli­cated matters – i.e.: “we know it all, so shut the h*** up”.

Such suppressive state­ments do of course have zero direct effect on the reality we all are living, and dreaming, in. What they achieve instead is to further cloud up the official and already pretty messy and highly unreli­able pic­tures of reality that are pre­sen­ted to the wider public, and thereby affect per­cep­tion and consequent actions among willing and unwilling recipients alike. This entire chain of fact-twisting and manipu­lation is often called “politics”, but can also be found under many other “names”. Variants, and con­vin­cing look-alikes, are found among all repli­cating enti­ties on earth down to the humble virus.

having to wake up, to this?

Those who dare go in depth in order to see the real pictures of what goes on all across the world, won't find all that many pretty ones. They may look nice at first, but once you touch the thin and frigile varnish made up mainly of empty words, “pretty” is not a good descrip­tion for the majority of what shows up in the news and via other sources.

Keep in mind that whatever condemnable behavior we can find in history books, we can find in our societies today. Nothing new under the sun that should surprise any­one, and nothing to justify any of it either.
It is human nature, and as humans we haven't evolved much since back in the later stone age, despite having gathered know­ledge about our­selves and our surroundings for so many thousands of years. Evolution of more complex organic matter – like the human brain – is a very slow process, and fifty thousand years isn't a long time. Thinking about and preparing for what humans are both willing to and capable of doing under given circum­stances, may take its toll on ones peace of mind but may also save lives.

Good thing not all of us allow our­selves to fit the most negative historic descrip­tions, and that for most of us there is not any­thing in our heri­tage and/​or our DNA that inevi­tably turns us into fact-sup­pres­sors and habitual mani­pu­lators.
We can sort facts from fiction, good from bad, and to a high degree we can choose who we want to be. And, we can dream good and inspiring dreams, if we so choose…

The enor­mous varia­bility and all the unset­tled natural pro­ces­ses, along with the unproven and the as of yet totally unknown in the world and beyond, is what it is all about to me … what have turned life itself into such an enjoy­able col­lec­tion of dreams, of which some have come through, and many still fly around on their own.

Should I have paused the rat-race and caught more dreams while I had the chance? Maybe, but some questions will just have to remain unanswered, I guess.

Anyway, “know it all” stands are both stupid and boring in my book, so I'll just keep on dream­ing and investi­gating. It ain't over till it's over…

sincerely 

Hageland 18.aug.2020
last rev: 20.aug.2020