I have a dream. Or, at least I think I do…

On August 28^th, 2011 the Martin Luther King Memorial will be dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, DC. That date will be the 48^th anniversary of Dr. King’s “Dream” speech. He concluded that speech with,

“…And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jew s and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

That speech, which took mere minutes to deliver, still has relevance today as Americans continue working towards making America a better country.

I can’t imagine being able to write and deliver a speech that ranks so highly in the canon of American rhetoric that it is ranked with:

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (Four score and seven years ago…),

Kennedy’s Inaugural Speech (Ask not what your country can do for you…), and,

FDR’s Inaugural Address (The only thing we have to fear is fear itself…).

I especially can’t fathom being so eloquent about a dream of such lofty ambitions. Hell, I never even have dreams; or at least dreams that I remember upon waking.

I took a course at the University of Minnesota that required students to do some analysis of our dreams. I mentioned in class that I didn’t think I dreamed anymore as I didn’t recall having a dream for 10 years. The instructor mentioned that we all dream, we don’t all remember our dreams though. He suspected that was the situation in my case. He had a few suggestions for me.

1. Before going off to sleep each night remind myself to remember my dreams.

2. Upon waking stay in bed for a while, relax, try to recall my dreams before starting my day.

3. Keep a pencil and paper by my bed to write down my dreams before arising.

Surprisingly, that semester, using the professor’s advice, I was able to recall some of my dreams, and no, none of them involved hot dogs chasing donuts nor trains entering tunnels (the classic cheesy old time movie cutaway denoting sexual activity).

My dreams, as I recall, were fairly unremarkable. Nothing like the dream Dr. King spoke of.

I’m pretty much back to springing out of bed, hustling to the shower, bus, and work, five mornings a week, so my dreams are largely forgotten. I do however share the vision of Dr. King’s Dream speech in my waking hours. I try to be open-minded and respect others views. I try to treat others as I’d like to be treated.

I try to be optimistic about the world even though it’d be easier to be pessimistic in the face of current events. I had a football coach once tell me that I reminded him of Nero, the Roman Emperor who played his fiddle while Rome burned. (my job was safe after all, they don’t fire equipment guys because the coach they work for has a losing record, they fire coaches for that)

I’d rather we lived in a country and world more akin to the one Dr. King imagined in his dream. If that means this old man still has a shred or two of youthful optimism, then so be it. An old guy still hoping for the best from mankind;

Who knew?