I’ve just read an intriguing piece written by Hans Wader, an elderly German singer-songwriter, guitarist and political & social activist, a troubadour with a certain amount in common with Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie. Here is it:

“The older I get, the clearer it becomes to me that I've done almost nothing in my life other than trying to realize my childhood dreams, taking on a lot of commitments and expecting others to do so. While I'm mostly successful in implementing banal projects, I fail at more ambitious dreams (like saving the world). Realizing more than a fraction of one's dreams is impossible anyway. No one can do that. It's just a matter of not devaluing or underestimating one's dreams, even when they fail, and not being ashamed of them as figments of one's imagination.

….. Dreams are not to be confused with illusions, which are always followed at some point by disillusionment….”

I’ll take him at his word when he says that he has  done almost nothing in his life other than trying to realize his childhood dreams – and failing at your most ambitious dreams isn’t the worst thing in the world. And I really envy him for having the courage to follow his dreams; as he was a successful performer for over 50 years and recorded over 40 albums, at least some of his dreams don’t seem to have been illusions.  

Until I read this, I’d rarely thought about my childhood dreams, and never really distinguished between dreams and illusions in the way Herr Wader does. Now, I can clearly see I had some big teenage delusions, e.g. that I was going to be a great photographer or become a distinguished university professor, but I also had some dreams which just may have been practical – had I had the courage to follow them. Looking back on the chronic lack of fulfilment I felt during most of my working life – probably the biggest source of my problems with depression - I can’t help wondering whether following some dreams, rather than just earning a comfortable living by taking a path of least resistance, would have been better for me.

And I don’t think dreams are only any  good for the very talented; dreams of family, travel, living in your idea of a great place, having a job you love, becoming very good at an interest for its own sake – they all count.  

Do any of you feel similar? Do you find the distinction between “dreams” and “Illusions” helpful?

Oldie but Goldie

A Moodscope member