Perchance to Dream

There seems to be one question that seems to come up when a quilter starts to look at a new project.  That question is this: What If?  What if I were to use this fabric with that pattern?  What if I were to use that fabric as a border or this color as a binding?  What if I were to appliqué a giant flower on top of this piecing?  What if I could make something beautiful, or unique, or amazing?  What if?

“What if” is the beginning of more than just quilts, though.  It is the beginning of dreams.  When we’re young, these questions seem much easier.  What if I were a cowboy?  What if I were a movie star?  What if there could be other worlds in addition to this one that I could visit just by closing my eyes?  What if I could turn myself into whatever I want?

As we get older such dreams become harder.  There is more of a pull to be practical rather than fantastical.  We are supposed to think more about what is real rather then what is imagined.  Arts and literature are pushed aside to make room for math and science.  There are subjects with no room for imagination.  Two plus two always equals four and what goes up always must come down.  They are real.  They are definite.  Yet what could we do with all of that math and science without a little imagination, a little dreams, to show us the way?  After all, these marvelous inventions that we all enjoy today, from cell phones to this lap top that I’m using right now, didn’t they once start as dreams?  There was a time when such things would have been considered impossible, yet because somebody had a dream, they are now just as real as two plus two.

Dreams can have a profound impact on our lives.  Everything we do has to start out as a dream.  Where would we be without them?  More importantly, where would we go without them?  We have to be able to imagine our lives the way we want them, otherwise how will we ever know what we want?  Dreams give our lives direction; give us a goal to strive for.  More than that it gives us hope of what we might one day become or achieve.  It seems as though our society tries so hard to keep our feet planted firmly on the ground that it fails to give us wings to fly.  To quote the song from the musical South Pacific, “You’ve got to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?”  How can we ever reach new heights if we have to keep our feet on the ground?  Where is the joy in life if we can’t reach for our dreams?  What if we were all to dare to dream big?