To Dream

As children I believe we all liked to think big. My brother and I dreamed up more big plans for our lives than you could shake a stick at. Of course, at the time we didn't know our own limitations and the limitations that circumstances and other people would put on us, so we freely dreamed and dreamed big. Most of the joy in my childhood came from those times when I imagined myself doing all sorts of amazing things.

When I was about eight years old, my cousin and I would take long treks through the fields and pastures around our homes both exploring and dreaming of things we would do in the future. Our days were filled with grand schemes and adventures, making the fields come alive with mystery and wonder. Every tree could become a ship, any little bit of water could be a boisterous sea and any animal could become a sea monster. Old machinery was magically turned into spaceships, airplanes or trains and bales of hay became castles, forts and hideouts.

Today, many children are robbed of this precious source of enjoyment when they are given the virtual world of video games. It somehow satisfies that need to dream, and yet at the same time, as scientists are slowly discovering, it has a debilitating and addictive effect on the child both mentally and physically. Children become less active, less intelligent and less healthy. And the mesmerizing, mind-numbing effects of that virtual world follow the child throughout his life. Studies have even proven that the brain, as a result of the flashing pictures on the screen, actually produces a drug that causes the body to go into a coma-like state. The research that illuminates this problem is easily accessible via the internet, yet there are few who know about it. Like many dangerous things in this world, there are those who, because they sell it, don't want anyone to know how dangerous it is.

Thus, it falls on the consumer to be responsible and intelligent about the choices he makes. Long ago I made the decision that I wanted my children to grow up with a healthy attitude toward play. Make-believe is an important step in a child's growth and can actually determine the kind of person he will be in his life.

As an adolescent I started to think about what I wanted to do with my life. As I grew, my dreams changed from sea monsters to senates, from pirates to pageants, from fields to families and I am still dreaming. “Where there is no vision the people perish.” is a well-known proverb. Ironically, in this day and age, there are images that bombard us constantly. We are exposed to visions of things that, if given a choice, we would not view. Our children can easily become addicted to games, images, programs and other media that can destroy them both mentally and physically. But the vision spoken of by the proverb, I believe is an inner vision. Without that inner vision, the people perish. Why? Because it is inner vision that motivates us to persevere through difficulty to achieve a goal. “Seeing” success in our minds is the first step to seeing success tangibly. So, today, instead of having a generation of motivated and successful people, we have a rising generation of video game addicts who see nothing, dream nothing and do nothing. There is an entire generation of people who still live with their parents and spend their days gaming because they don't want to live in the real world.

Childhood make-believe has the opposite effect on the minds of children. It makes them want to live and work in the world and make it better. People are always asking me why I do what I do when it is so hard and takes so much of my time. It's because I have a dream. When I was just a little girl the dream began to grow in me and now I am seeing the dream become a reality in my life. It makes me happy and it doesn't seem like work, only play, like when I was a child, only better. I'm still dreaming and still trying to accomplish my dreams. Those visions are what motivate me to get up every day and do something. Make sure that you give the children in your life the best chance for success they can ever get: give them the space, the time, and the chance to dream. And then show them how by doing it yourself. That's what makes the world go 'round.