Two-Headed Dreamers

You can’t be a two-headed dreamer. You can’t have it both ways. Two-headed dreamers don’t just talk out of both sides of their mouth….they talk from two completely different minds. Consider those passionate idealists who both want to make meaningful change in life, and at the same time are insistent that there is a menacing conspiracy keeping them from making change happen. It’s a contradiction in thinking…two different heads trying to direct the same body.

My working definition of a passionate idealist is someone who dreams dreams and lives their waking hours to realize them. They have a zeal for life and a belief that they have a moral obligation to make a difference through the life they live. I fancy myself to be a passionate idealist. I believe I make a difference every day by my attitude, choices and actions. Anything that I allow to shake that belief reduces my chances to be successful.

Having this orientation to the world is a sum of all my experiences from early on. Speaking up and asking questions, engaging others and building my own understanding from the discourse. Standing up for what I believe in and withstanding the push back of pessimism and conflicting agendas. Responding to others’ ideals and dreams and working together to make them that much closer to reality. Lending a helping hand when peers are struggling to accomplish their goals, and appreciating the satisfaction of watching them succeed.

But it’s more than that. Believing you can make the world a better place is a response to so many expressions of hope and faith in humanity. It’s laughing out loud to Forrest Gump and cheering during Braveheart. It’s singing along to One Tin Soldier at the top of your lungs and melting into memories when you hear the opening notes of What a Wonderful World. It’s being able to recite your favorite lines from your favorite movie without a second’s hesitation. It’s recalling everything in exact detail about the moment you met someone who dramatically changed you…both verbally and visually...believing everything happens for a reason...that love conquers all….

So how can people with such pure passion for leaving a lasting legacy reconcile that idealism with an unquestioned acceptance that some imposing evil holds our collective will captive and prevents us from making a difference?

Consider the prohibition movement of the early 1900s. Wayne Wheeler was a major player in the movement to pass theEighteenth Amendment. A central piece of his argument for outlawing alcohol was a claim that business leaders wanted to keep their workforce dependent on alcohol so that workers were unable to organize and insist on better working conditions. On the ground in the heat of the progressive era, would this have looked like a truly plausible conspiracy? Apparently so, because everyone from religious leaders to union leaders to politicians came together to pass a constitutional amendment against the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol in 1920. But what does it tell us that the Twenty-first Amendment repealed this law only thirteen years later? The well-intended movement to address alcohol abuse was hijacked by unfounded fears and conspiracies that spawned an entire new set of societal problems. It’s striking that a social issue this pervasive was relegated to a simplistic solution that didn’t address the true problem at all.

If we allow our idealistic selves to be two-headed, to embrace not only everything we celebrate about our life and times, but also react out of frustration to unfounded fears, then we undermine our potential to be both dreamers and doers. We surrender our ability to make a difference by conceding that some unseen overpowering force is pulling the strings and calling the tune. In short…it’s a cop-out.

If you really want to make a difference, be a single-minded dreamer and a tough-minded doer. Don’t concede that anything is blocking your ability to make a difference but your own thinking and attitude. The only thing that has ever made a difference in this life is unflappable determination and a willingness to do the hard work that needs to be done. Now…let’s get to it.