We Stop Dreaming

We stop dreaming…

…and worse, we decide to call it growing up.

I am a Puer aeternus: meaning that I plan to never grow up. At least when it comes to dreaming. And since I have no plans of dying as well, this quote by Brian Williams makes a whole lot of sense to me.

“A person starts dying when they stop dreaming”

And I don’t want to die, EVER!!!

And that implies I won’t grow up either. See, I’m already thinking as a kid. Kids have this idea that everyone grows up, and then they die. Of course, kids don’t die. And we’ll leave it that way!!!

Leave it to Peter Pan, the archetypal Puer aeternus (Eternal Boy) to say it best:

“If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!”

What prompted this post was some things that were said at this meeting I went to on Saturday. The speaker said something in the light of:

A lot of us keep on living until 65, 70…, but we have already become living corpses at the age of 21. This is because at this age, we stop dreaming. When we were young, we all thought about traveling the world, owning islands, and mansions…but then we decide to grow up. We begin to rationalize our dreams, to make it match our “realities”. We decide to settle!

And then he said something: “It all boils down to one word – Association.” Associate with those who expect more out of this world, and you begin to expect more as well.

This is what I would say draws me a little closer to kids, and adults who have refused to stop dreaming. Thank God I have friends like that!

Their expectations, or should I say “our” expectations, are laughable and just plain ridiculous, however, it’s what will keep us young – we are basking in the fountain of youth after all – long after the worms have had the bodies of our counterparts for dinner. You’re next for dessert if you stop dreaming!

It’s a tradition of this blog to end with a song. And of course, the most fitting song should have something to do with being “Forever Young”. There is Bob Dylan’s, there is Rod Stewart’s, and then there is Alphaville’s (you’ve heard the Jay-Z’s cover of this, right?)