The American Dream

"The American dream" is more important than one might think. Something about dreams both define us and deny us. They define in that they uncover ourselves at the most honest level--what we want most, the raw and uncut version. But they deny us in that a dream never acted upon calls into question a large measure of that which I think makes me "me." Left long enough in the Land of Oz with no mooring to Kansas, I regress to a wispy shadow of intention. Great courage is always required to move from here to there. The greater distance betwixt the two, the higher is the demand for an intrepid spirit. God grant each of us the lion's courage, the tin man's heart, the scarecrow's brain, but most of all, the derring-do of Jesus of Nazareth that catapults beyond the plains of dreams and onto the summit of fearless abandon.