the future needs a big kiss

What did you want to be when you were younger? What motivated you and kept you going? What were your dreams (both conscious and unconscious) filled with?

As children, many of us had big plans for our lives; HUGE plans for the future. We dreamed of being spacemen and spacewomen; being explorers of the unknown and literally pushing the boundaries of the human capacity. Others dreamed of being firemen, doctors, and veterinarians because we wanted to devote our futures to caring for others. There was just something satisfying about taking a toy medical set and magically healing someone, just to let them know that "they were all better". Others, like myself, dreamed of being a professional hockey player in the NHL. I did not start playing ice hockey until grade five, but years before that I just knew that I had it in me. I certainly did not dream of being in the OHL or almost making the NHL, I dreamed about being in the NHL.

The question now is what happened? Did reality hit? Did we realize that being an astronaut was a foolish goal? Did we come to the conclusion that there really is more to life than simply just "helping people out"? I mean, we have to help ourselves out first, right? Did I realize I did not have the capacity to excel at a professional level in any and every sport? What happened?

Obviously as we get older we see things in a broader light and we begin to understand what is practical and what is not; what is feasible and what is foolish. Let's face it: if i have not realized that my dreams of making the NHL are over by now, my life would be headed towards utter chaos and disappointment. As we grow up, we learn to adjust the wild and endless dreams we used to have.

But maybe as we have grown up, we have adjusted them too much, or we have forgotten how to dream altogether. Reality hits us so hard, perhaps, that we no longer strive for the unimaginable, but rather we strive for what is do-able; what seems like the right thing to do. When we think of the future, less and less do our eyes widen and our hearts beat faster at the mere thought of the potential of our lives. Think about it: the potential of our lives. When we were kids, we certainly had big dreams and in no way did we want to just be normal. We wanted to be the best; we wanted to literally have our lives stretched as far as possible to do what we were meant to do. And as I survey many of my peers and older, I begin to realize that that idea of doing what we were meant to do is fading. Our dreams become smaller, and our view of ourselves become slightly more unattractive, unappealing, and typical.

So what do we strive for now? Of course there are some who still have big dreams of the fancy cars, big mansion, and packs of girls following them around and clinging onto their every word. Sure there are people like that, but lets face it: most of the time their motives are selfish and embarrassing, and, honestly, it's hard to call that dreaming big. As children we were dreaming about the full potential of who we could be, not what we could own or how many letters or inches we on.

But for the society that I am a part of, as a majority, it seems we strive for one key thing: stability. We like the idea of being stable. We like the idea of having enough money to put food on the table; to keep gas in the engine, and occasionally spoil ourselves on a shopping spree. We like the idea of having the same job forever: that if it pays well and the co-workers are nice, there really is not anything else more you can ask for. We like the idea that a tornado will not sweep through our city tomorrow morning and our house will not be reduced to a pile of scrap wood. We like that stability, and let's be honest, who wouldn't? They are fairly reasonable things to want, so why would we not desire them?

But the real issue here is not that we want this, but that this is what our dreams have diminished to: stability. We went from wanting to explore the deepest regions of outer space to wanting a house in a safe community. Really the sad part of this is that our dreams of stability really lead us towards a stagnant life. People in middle to upper-class Western society seem to strive to make their way into a cyclical lifestyle that neither progresses or advances; instead, like a cycle, it boringly just goes around in a circle. The life I believe many are working towards, and many are currently already in, is a goal of being able to find a nice paying job that will provide financially for them and their family, and in turn will create a comfortable lifestyle and comfortable atmosphere for them to continue working with their job so they will not get fired, and stay in their position so they can provide financially for them and their family...

Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of responsibility, but again I must repeat myself, is this what our be-all-and-end-all dreams have diminished to? Have we just adopted a mindset of settling and just finding a comfortable niche that we can call our home for the rest of our lives until we die? Once we hit this cycle, are we just counting the days until it is over, or are we truly striving to live everyday to the fullest; striving to live our lives to their fullest? We have narrowed our views on ourselves and we are so quick to crush anything inside us that is telling us that we can be more. We have come a long way from our imaginative and wild dreams, to now, where our dreams are, well, just practical. It is hard to change the world and make a difference if our biggest and wildest hopes and goals for ourselves are merely restricted by practicality and reality. I am starting to understand more and more what Jesus meant when he said "Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it".

I work with a lot of children and youth throughout the year and, naturally, am exposed to many of their plans for the future. Some of them want to be superheroes, while others want to be musicians, while some want to be construction workers. Money, fame, and status usually have nothing to do with their decisions, rather they are motivated by this idea that they can change the world; that they can have an dramatic impact on the world, and they can play their part in making it a better place. I pray that as they grow up, that the world they so desire to save will not taint them, but rather, they will strive to break free from normality and never forget how to dream big.