Why I really don’t want Christmas on the beach
At a dinner recently, everyone was given a question about Christmas. I was asked where my ideal Christmas Day would be spent. After a few minutes – I had to think about it cos it’s not really a life or death issue for me – I answered that the picture in my head included an entirely blue sky, the beach (ocean) and a medium sized group of people in a decent marquis/sun shelter eating good food. Despite the fact that I’d never thought about it before, I thought I managed to create a reasonably decent image in a few short minutes.
Over the past few days I’ve been thinking and researching about the difference between a dream and a fantasy. I guess it’s a combination of launching this blog and the whole New Year thing that’s triggered it. Here are a few opinions I found online:
“If we have a ‘dream’ for the future, there is usually (but not always) a chance it will come true. If we just have a ‘fantasy’ it is usually something that is just nice to think about but almost certainly will not come true”
“A dream is something you can imagine that you want. A fantasy is something you can imagine, might like to think about it, and yet would not want it to happen.”
“Dreams are not fantasies. While fantasies belong only to the imagination, dreams are doable and achievable….Dreams allow us to know where we are going.”
In reading these through, I realised that actually, I don’t want to have Christmas on the beach as I pitched it. As soon as I started to think about the practicalities I knew. What about the weather? How do you keep sand out of everything? What about the insects? The logistical nightmare of getting all the food I’d want there and ready and presented? No, that was a fantasy – although a very nice one – that needed to stay in my imagination.
On the other hand, this blog is part of a bigger dream. It’s not only that I want to live in a better world; I actually believe it’s possible. This thought gives me direction and shapes my work. Even though it’s a big dream (ok, massive) I can start with a little step. And each step will take me further forward, and hopefully bring you along too.
If you want to know more about how I dream life could be, you can read about it elsewhere. In the meantime, I’m kind of curious to know. What are your dreams for life? (You can keep your fantasies a secret!) Do you distinguish between the two? Which dreams are you working towards in 2015?