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Thursday, March 10, 2011

In Support of Daydreaming

"People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind" William Butler Yeats

Photo by miss_mimee
As I write this, it is a wet day in south Florida. This is not the rainy season, so a wet day usually means an oncoming cold front. Yes, I feel the front coming in through the glorious cross breeze. I have spent the morning finishing a sculpture, writing a soliloquy to the morning (a writing project) and spent  hollow time on realtor.com, You tube and facebook. I am now contemplating a nap.

In our society, what I have spent my day doing would be considered a waste of time-- I don't make a living from my sculpture or my writing. Therefore, it is unproductive and I could be considered by some to be downright lazy. To me, the vastness of what I have learned today could fill chapters in a book. My sloppy sculpture of a horse turned into a magical unicorn and my writing exercise lent me an opportunity to empathize with a person who hates mornings (I love them). My foray on realtor.com gave my imagination great fodder for my upcoming move to North Carolina. Where else can I window shop for historic homes with fine old woodwork, bright nooks and crannies for a studio AND a barn and workshop?

My time on You tube led me to listening  to music that filled my heart and watching Lady Gaga perform theatrical miracles. It led me to a PBS documentary about a man suffering from ALS who chooses whether he wants to commit suicide. It opened me to people and things I would never have encountered in my daily life. My time on facebook allowed me to connect with friends while wearing my comfy pajama bottoms and a big tee shirt from Castlewood Canyon. My nap will allow me time to spend in my dream galaxies where the other night I cleaned out old Christmas trees that I had been hoarding in a huge warehouse for years. I have some amazing dreams!

While I have wasted away my day, the vast majority of people I know have busied themselves with important things, working at soul numbing jobs, networking, talking on the phone, pushing around papers, signing things. You know, the things that really matter to our well-being on this planet, right? Being a student of the human condition, I have come to a shocking conclusion. When did we become so numb that we need to hire coaches and therapists to help us find ourselves? To sort out what it is that just may make us happy? It is indeed a conundrum.

I have a simple solution: daydreaming.  It is wildly entertaining, quite the stress buster, and gives the right hemisphere something to do in this world of left-brainedness.  My daydreams find their way into my writing, into my art, into my dreams. And I don't need to pay anyone to tell me how to be happy. Of course, if I feel the need, I probably can just dream up an adventure to take my mind off my perception of misery.  If I feel like shopping, I go online to Etsy and pick out the most glorious handmade articles and collect them in my favorites. Window shopping on steroids.

And when all the daydreaming has tired me out, I pull up my big fluffy comforter and take a nap.