Daydream believer

 

“Man can only become what he is able to consciously imagine.” – Dane Rudhyar

Did you realize that our “daydream moments of mental wandering” can lead us exactly where we want to go, or at least provide a rough outline that we can then fill in with commitment to turn it into reality?

Can you grasp that what seems like an “unrealizable fantasy” can be distilled into a dream and then become a plan that changes lives? I want to go on record….it’s OK to let your mind wander and grope with unsolvable and unimaginable things. Just maybe, perhaps, you will surprise yourself and everyone around you. I remember that verse from Sunday School. Luke 18:27  “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

The limits we have are often of our own making. Just because we can’t figure out how something can be accomplished, does not seal our fate or prove its impossible.

Daydream Believer , yep! I am wide awake, sipping on the very first cup of coffee and I believe every word I am writing! What can it mean? Do you have to be a musician or artist or spiritual leader to “get it”? No, I’m none of those. I am concrete and realistic, with an “ethereal” dusting. One of my best friends described me to my daughter once as “Ethereal”. It was not meant to be a compliment.:)

But, you know what? I took it as one.  Do you have any idea how sad it is to walk through your day to day life and see nothing more than the nose on your face? To be oblivious to the magic all around? To miss the opportunities to find connections that go unnoticed? To marvel at the wonders of life?

Is frost on the windshield really hard? Is ice slippery? Is 70 degrees too warm or too cold?

It depends on who you ask and what they are doing when you ask them. Frost is not hard, if you have the car running and defrost on or if you are running a scraper through it. It flakes or melts into fluff or water. Is ice slippery? Only when you are sliding on it with skates or shoes. It’s not when you are putting cubes in a glass. Seventy degrees? If I have the thermostat on 70 in winter, some guests are “freezing” since they are used to 78 degrees. If I keep it on 70 in summer, some are ” freezing” again and some complain it is too hot.

I think you can see in simple examples that this translates into the unseen.  Seeing possibilities is about us, more than it is about whether something is “impossible” or not. If we say it is, then it is for us. What did Henry Ford say? “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”   And, he also said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”  And, then the part I like best in his prosaicness….he recognized that his peers could not grasp his work with the automobile. He said,“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

And, this is where I am today. Do you see this picture?Look appealing? Can you envision that the entire front of the first picture you saw was covered by a later addition of a loading dock with rusty old doors and all boarded up like you see here? I saw these windows, when they were not like they are now. It took 7 years, but isn’t the first picture a beauty? A proud building returned to full service to a community of people who can now embrace her value and worth.

I have my peers who say, “We want a new building for our museum”. We want brand new offices for staff, a state of the art security system, a wall of glass, metal and sleekness. We want to spend our money for a new structure built to our specifications. Of course, if anyone has ever built a new building, you realize there is an architect for a good reason. Everyone’s “specifications” are different. This one likes curved staircases and the other likes straight, one likes carpeted steps and the other likes hardwood. It is hard to please everyone, even with a new structure.

How can I help my peers see the beauty in an old property being used as a museum? It is a piece of living history, in and of, itself.  It is natural to want the smell of new, but it is wiser and more visionary to see the value in preserving the packaging along with the items on display.  Those who love historical pieces, dredged up from the past or located in digs, will appreciate the larger initiative in using a historical building to house the artifacts. Have you noticed how a few who profess to “know” what’s best use “no” imagination? They ground their position on things like “security” and “climate control”. Right now, all the items are stacked in a dusty closet in a building where no one cares about locking the closet door or whether the vents are situated to advantage. Isn’t the concept of sharing the collection and preserving the surrounding historical structures simple? It’s less expensive. It’s the right thing to do and the legacy of generation to generation foresight. So, why am I struggling?

Their eyes see this.  Someone said, “It’s just a dusty old building” and should be torn down.

Well, all of the current house museums in town used to be in disrepair before someone saw their value and took on the project.

 

 

 

 

I see one of the few wooden storefront structures remaining from the early 20th century in the region. It is situated right in the middle of a historic district and look what is behind it. And, beside it. It can be part of the story of the town, that is yet untold. It could be a “showplace” for visitors.

If left untended, it will not be selected by the average buyer to become a home. Look at it. It was never intended to be a house or home. It was built to be a storefront, for naval goods. It has been used for a barber shop, a doctor’s office, a pool hall, and countless other things since the original purpose ceased to exist.

If we don’t offer it a suitable purpose, it will go the way of others. It will be torn down to make way for what contemporary society values. Waterfront homes – mac mansions- that do not fit into the original 50 foot lots of an earlier time nor do they resonate with a walking tour of a colonial period.

Do I feel that I can help others see the possibilities? I can only try and try I will.

Did I convince you? What can I say, to capture the hearts and minds of the people?

“If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.” – Marcel Proust