Dreams and expectations

They say it's good to have dreams.

That's true, you have to know which direction to head in if you're going to find the light at the end of the tunnel.

But do some dreams just end up weighing you down as you get older?

When you're young, the whole world is your oyster and dreams can be as ambitious as you like. Ask a group of kids what they want to be when they're older and you'll inevitably hear things like: "An astronaut", "A doctor", "A fireman", "A singer".

Kids' dreams aren't limited by the reality of skills, education and money.

As you get older and you find more realistic dreams, does it get any easier?

It seems, the more you focus on a dream and the more you tell other people about those dreams, the more they become expectations. A line drawn in the sand that you'll obviously reach one day if you just keep on walking. But what if you don't? Were you dreaming too high or expecting too much?

The size of your dreams aren't equal to the size of the expectations on you.

The celebrity minority in our society are often heard to say that they dreamed of being famous, of winning that championship or medal, of being the best in their field. And those big dreams and ambitions helped to motivate them to get there. 

But no one expects them to make it so big.

So what about us civilians? Those of us who may have dreamed of something small but ambitious and, on the face of it, fairly achievable. The smaller the dream, the bigger the expectation that you'll achieve it. And expectation is pressure: a simple dream should be easy to achieve. And if you don't, that carries a big weight of failure.

So should we dream big or small? Should we keep dreams as dreams and never expect to achieve them?

Should we aim for the large tunnel with the big light or the little tunnel with the small light?

Maybe we should just enjoy the journey…

Anarchy rules

A civilized society has to have rules.
Rules trickle down the ladder of life and shape our lives into interesting polygons and dodecahedrons.

From the national to the local level, from your parish to your street, rules are everywhere.
Some rules are written in law and come from previous generations. What did they know about 2009? Other rules come from people who supposedly know what's best for us. These people are society's expert parents. They have nothing to do except make rules.

Other rules are unwritten but are just as potent. These are social rules, rules of behaviour, which dictate your personal success. Nowadays, some of these rules are also written down, in self-help books that have a stigma of shame – they break the first rule of unwritten rules.
A workplace requires professional rules. You do what your boss says. Playing by these rules can surround you with money.
Family and friends require social rules. You enjoy shopping and drinking. Playing by these rules can surround you with mates.
Sharing a house requires house rules. You do the washing up when it's your turn. Playing by these rules can surround you with love.

Most of us just go along with rules for an easy life. We don't think about them or question them.
If we do think about it, there are some rules we all agree on. Other rules don't affect us so we're not bothered about them. Other people are so strongly affected by specific rules that they are moved to violently protest against them.

Then there are those grey rules that we pretend to agree with but break every day. Illegal downloads. Speed limits. Queues. Stealing stationery from work.
These rules give the illusion of order, while anarchy rages.
The anarchy is that everyone follows their own rules, when forced to think about them.
Each of us decide in a fraction of a second whether to follow some rules and not others.

So why not break the rules occasionally? Test your own rules and other people's and find out which rules you really want to sign up to.
Or try following some rules you've never bothered with for a change and find out how it feels.
To me, it's when rules become normal that people get boring.

In the beginning

Everything has to start somewhere. Doesn't it?
Science says we started with the big bang. The bible says God started on the first day.
Is it possible that there is no start? That things have always just been…
We think of a person's history as starting with their birth, but haven't they already been around for nine months? When someone tells their life story, isn't there always something about their parents and their parents and their parents…

So the start of this blog isn't really a start, it's a continuation of what's always been.
Life is full of random thoughts about the world but where do those thoughts go if they're not written down?
Some are remembered with a smile, others are forgotten in an instant.
So this is my plan, my purpose – to share random thoughts with those who want to hear them.
A place to be general rather than specific. To question rather than answer.
So, let's begin…