We spent a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon yesterday with a good friend, talking about matters both mundane and momentous. Just days ago, in a post here, I bemoaned the disappearance of truly substantive dialogue. Yesterday’s discussions offered solid evidence that my earlier mourning of conversation’s demise was misplaced. At some point in the afternoon, we asked one another to express our hopes for the future. That discussion led our friend to characterize one such announcement as equivalent to John Lennon’s lyrics for his song, Imagine. She started reciting the words to the song; they beautifully capture the concept of hope for humankind:
Imagine
Imagine there’s no heaven,
It’s easy if you try.
No hell below us
Above us, only sky.
Imagine all the people
Livin’ for today.Imagine there’s no countries,
It isn’t hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for,
And no religion, too.
Imagine all the people
Livin’ life in peace…
The lyrics continue, of course, but the first two lyrical stanzas fully capture the idea.
Maybe hope and fantasy are one and the same. Regardless, hope is a fantasy worth pursuing. A substantive conversation can prompt emotions and ideas and points of view that are easily overlooked in the frenzy of daily life. We all need to devote more time and attention to conversations; real, thought-provoking discussions. Several of yesterday’s conversations still resonate with me. When we allow ourselves to open up through conversations, we have the opportunity to better understand the world around us and to more fully comprehend who we are.
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Even though I sometimes find mi novia‘s concerns about my health a bit constricting, I am immensely grateful that she cares. Knowing that someone cares enough to risk being considered a “nag” is enormously fulfilling. And that realization gives rise to feelings of compassion for those who do not have such extraordinarily good fortune. Close, caring relationships keep hope alive. People who have no family, friends, or others who care enough to “interfere” are, whether they know it or not, teetering on the edge of losing confidence in themselves—if they haven’t already lost it. This reality may be so obvious that it goes without saying. But unless we give it sufficient thought, we risk allowing ourselves to overlook it or—even worse—giving others the sense that we do not value their care.
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I slept for close to 12 hours last night. Half a day lost to unconsciousness. Well, not entirely lost. I remember a bizarre dream in which I was traveling with my brother. We had stopped at a ramshackle cluster of buildings that apparently were dedicated to selling “junk” or antiques. Suddenly, massive tornadoes dropped from the sky and one of them picked up the building where we stood. The storm took the building (and us) across a four-lane highway and deep into a huge field on the other side. Neither of us, nor the other people and animals (there were several) in the building were injured. But dozens of other tornadoes spun all around us. Despite the storms, we had to walk outside, through a soggy field that I worried could be full of snakes, to get to an outhouse. Weird dreams occupy my nights.
