To be or not to be? That's the question...perhaps TO DREAM.
Shakespeare is on board.
Among his various beings,
Each man ALWAYS finds ONE:
Which is his genuine
And authentic being.
The voice which calls him
To that authentic being,
Is what we call vocation.
( Joel Ortega Gasset )
LIFE.
Your vocation, if you like your profession, your calling.
If you like your job, better still if you love what you do, your work:
It would resonate...like an epic.
All you need is time. And providence.
In his hand, he held the Ace of Spades
And the Ace of Hearts.
...And hid his grin.
( TITANIC )
The Ace of Spades...your WORK; the Ace of Hearts...your LOVE.
Your Calling, therein lies your Happiness.
Now, and in the Future.
Be it to earn a Living, or to advance the Self.
Be it for the sake of the Public good.
Your Calling. It would demand all your Mastery.
And this translates to a huge chunk of your Lifetime.
From adolescence to adulthood.
A lifetime?
Yes. It's a progression. One step at a time.
You've got to make the voyage, whether you like it or not.
Amidst the turbulence of a sea of unpredictable human beings and unexpected events.
One step at a time!
DREAMS.
But, what's the stuff thereof?
Then said they unto Him,
What shall we do?
That we might work
The work of God?
This is the work of God:
That ye believe on Him
Whom He has sent.
( John 6: 28-29 )
Our human mistakes.
Yes, our personal errors. Our social foibles. Our daily struggle.
All of it leads us, on a worldly journey through our conscious mind:
Reason.
We depend on reasoning to solve all our problems; to survive and thrive.
That's the human factor.
"Human" means that we are not God.
Therefore, reason will fail us sometimes.
The limitation of our reasoning, is the inevitable consequence of the finite space that is our brain/mind; viewed from the context of an almost infinite universe.
It is not surprising therefore, that reason is insufficient on its own to make our dreams come true.
There are inevitable questions that pop up, along the way to realizing our dreams.
For instance, intellectual power ( IQ ), emotional adjustment ( EQ ), and personality profile.
Where do you stand, on a scale of finance?
What's your character?
Is your neighbour's word the final word?
I pray you take the latter "with a pinch of salt".
Otherwise, your dream would go through the window, literally as fast as it came in through the doorway !
You cannot base a life, or a dream on the duplicity of human nature.
Colours. They're a phenomenon of the "Eyes".
How do you see the world? How do you see your world?
"Small is the number of men that see with their own eyes, and feel with
their own hearts", says Albert Einstein.
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when contemplating
the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality".
May you not look at the world, through rose-tinted glasses!
Sorry, there you go; the illusion of the universe.
Visions. What you see, is what you get. "As a man thinketh, so he is".
But the "catch-22", if I may call it, is :
what's your yardstick ? what's your instrument? How do you measure?
20/20 vision is accurate ; vision unimpaired. The domain of the muscles of the eye, if your eye healthy. Both eyes, but their vision is passive.
This is merely "sight", in this particular context; not true vision. Not in the prolific sense of dreams.
Mental "picture" emanates from the brain. Prolific vision, dream.
Your brain, through reasoning, can "see" a non-existent thing. Its vision is active. Future...Dreams.
"Curiosity is a delicate little plant which, aside from stimulation, stands
mainly in need of freedom", observes Albert Einstein.
Reason conceives, or dreams.
But the extent of conception ( or dream ) and its actualization are both
limited by the "power" of the brain - which is natural, and therefore limited...
in Space and Time.
SPIRIT.
This is the the "breath" of God, the Source of Life. And therefore, the "Power".
Spirit carries the power to make any dream come true!
It brings a special gift of - "divine insight" - and "galvanizes people and
ideas into action", to actualize A DREAM.
The Spirit...from God to Man, is "supernatural".
Unlike the brain, the Spirit is unlimited in space and time, to conceive and bring a dream to pass .
The Spirit's direct reference or standard, is the triumvirate GOD.
Spirit therefore has all it takes: Power, Space, and Time.
It decides how, where and when... to make a dream materialize.
Only the Spirit of God or Divine Power can make a Man realize his dream
on a universal and timeless scale.
Reason, working via the conscious mind, affords only a microscopic view; at best a prismatic perspective, pin-hole view.
Spirit,on the other hand, if it rules the subconscious mind, confers a telescopic insight. And Pray, where the Spirit of God meets Man, vision acquires a divinely tailored precision.
As well as a far-reach too. Astronomical.
In this particular context, may I employ the metaphor, "Titan-ic" !
The dream is to see far and make big, with dependence on His Power. SPIRIT.
Beyond being a historical matter, we should understand "visions" as a biblical matter. We should assume the lens of God ( inside of us ), to
"picture" our own world.
At least, how it ought to be.
With God's Omni-science, a Man could "see the end from the beginning": Dream!
As God leads him. One step at a time.
Life's a mystery...only the Omni-potent God has the ultimate Say. Word. Power.
As it was" in the beginning" , of All Things ; everyday offers new opportunity
to see ( things ) differently...or to dream.
Then we can go to work, and go to work, and go to work...while we leave the final result to God.
This Gift I was given,
So I just live by my hustle.
Keep hustlin;
It ain't over with me,
No it ain't over with me.
Keep flowin;
I'mma step my game up,
And get what's coming to me.
( Djay, Hustle & Flow )
We move forward by a de-construction of our past, like the fall of the Man-made vessel, Titanic.
We advance with a re-construction of our future, like the "resurrection" of the God-man vessel, Titan-ic!
Christ-like.
The goal is to see and do like Christ when He was on Earth; as Christ-ians.,
On whose side are you? Are you on the Lord's side?
That's the ultimate question that is Life; a question of Identity.
What's your dream?
Do you want to be A Titan ?
Do you Dream like the "Son of Man"?
Do you Dream to be "Titan-ic"?
"I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day;
The night cometh, when no man can work", concludes Jesus Christ ( John9:4, KJV ).
The Truth
Was that Jay Gatsby...
Sprang from
A platonic conception of himself.
He was a Son of God -
A phrase which
If it means anything,
Means just that -
And he must
Be about his Father's business;
The service of a vast, vulgar [ mundane ]
Meretricious Beauty.
( F. Scott Fitzgerald )
Dreams. Like Christ, you should see not where you are, but where you can be...
Not what you are, but what you can become...
"This is the problem of subjective experience - that all reasoning proceeds from behind the veil of perception. And our perception is in many ways a constructed illusion", agrees Andrew R. Long, in The Dream Is Real.
Like Christ, you can take a fall, oh yeah?
That's life at its barest.
Why do you think or reason that you cannot Rise Again?
That's life at its best.
Like Christ did, for you and for me. Resurrection!
That was a divinely orchestrated Re-birth.
Say, like God, do you not want to dream...be re-born?
Life's real; but reality is not fixed!
It's is dynamic like A motion-picture.
A Life is supposed to be a dynamic of a divinely-inspired bio-pic.
The Dream...is to be Re-born; to dream...is to be re-born!
"What a miracle is Man", re-echoes Pico della Mirandola, an intellectual of The Renaissance.
Man was to be a Magus:
Blessed with the access codes,
Of cosmos and mind;
Making himself up,
As he went along.
( Pico Della Mirandola )
Titanic.
This was the creative work of screen-writer and Hollywood movie-director, James Cameron.
The film was epic in production.
And in cinematic conception.
For the spectator, it opens a rare window of visual and sonic experience.
Especially if you've got the "artistic eye".
Titanic, as a piece of work, engenders irrevocably, a lifetime appreciation.
"Never forget we are cosmic revolutionaries, not stooges, conscripted to advance a natural order....
Having invented the 'gods', we can turn into them", reiterates Alan Harrington, a social commentator and author of The Immortalist (1969).
Historical Perspective
The RMS Titanic was a British passenger ocean-liner.
It was also a Royal Mail Ship.
It is arguably the most famous ship in human history.
Titanic was the largest sea-going vessel afloat, at the time.
It carried about 2,224 passengers and crew members on board. It was less than its full capacity, even at that ( The National coal workers strike in the UK at the time, prevented its full loading ).
Titanic was the second in a fleet of three olympic-sized steamers of the International Mercantile Marine company ( IMM ), The White Star Line.
Its sister-ships were RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic.
Titanic was built by about 2,000 workers supervised by the naval captain,Thomas Andrew.
The contract was awarded to the ship-building firm, Harland and Wolff, of Belfast.
"Titanic" was derived from Greek mythology, translated "gigantic".
It was registered at Liverpool, UK.
Its chairman was J. Bruce Ismay and its financier, the renowned American banker, J. P. Morgan.
Amongst its passengers, was J. Jacob Astor IV, the German-American heir to a real estate fortune which included the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York.
Captained on its maiden sail by Edward Smith, the "Ship of Dreams", was the last name in comfort and luxury.
It sailed from Southampton, England on 10 April, 1912.
Navigating through Cherbourg, France and Queenstown ( now Cobh ), Ireland, its final port was
New York, USA.
Accidentally, Titanic hit an ice-berg on 14 April, 1912 ( at about 11:40 pm, Ship's Time ).
It eventually buckled under the weight of in-roading sea water, and submerged completely into the Northern wing of the Atlantic Ocean.
The bottom line: Titanic was a "man-made" dream...designed to be...unsinkable.
[ Sorry, the weak-link here is Man-made; a sharp contradistinction to God-made! ]
"The Child is the Father of The Man", says William Wordsworth
A Night To Remember ( 1955 ) was a book-written version of the Titanic.
Authored by Walter Lord, it was adapted to movie format ( 1958 ), with an eponymous title.
Tonight, the choice is yours, take the opportunity.
Stay at home or go to the movie theatre.
Come clean like a child again, tabula rasa.
Switch off the little light bulbs in you mind.
Turn on the big screen lights, and enlarge the light-of -your mind.
Allow the heavenly rays to penetrate the dream-lens of your spirit!
Let it chase away your fears, the evanescent darkness, that lurks in your mind's eye.
Tonight, I beseech thee, open the doors to your heart.
And may your Dream-self Rise Again.
Like the Sky-bound Wings of The Eagle.
Well-above the vagaries of Life, and the limitations of the Earth ( metaphorically too, the flesh ).
Tonight is yours.
Re-possess all, if you will; your dream-space, your sacred-space.
New thoughts. New ideas.
New ways-and-means. New solutions.
If you wanna-be.
Tonight, as we remember Titanic;
I Pray that you find your God-space...and be Re-born.
Tonight:
Look at Titanic again.
It's more than just a movie or fun.
It's more than just a movie with a tragic ending.
If your care to look "behind the scenes", you'll understand that:
Titanic is so much more.
Behold!
A great piece of work.
"The Puritan Work Ethic...is still evident today. Puritans in 17th Century Salem
believed hard work kept the devil away", surmises Brett D, an American educator.
So, if you "wanna-be" (1996 ), "Spice Up Your Life" ( 2012 );
Sang the Spice Girls.
If you want my future
Forget my past.
If you wanna get with me better,
Make it fast.
Now don't go wasting
My precious time;
Get your act together,
We'll be just fine.
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna...
On that fateful voyage aboard the Titanic, back in 1912, there was a wanna-be.
He started out as a seemingly chaotic figure.
But eventually he was the focus of a huge drama that remains, until this day, etched in the memories of many, especially one young woman.
He was a romantic at heart, yet extremely brave.
And saved the life of a lover.
He lived as a free-mind, like a free bird; easy to get along with, if the occasion was right.
He was penniless, but gifted.
In his breast, he nursed warm Artistic Dreams, which he wanted to share with The World.
He was talented, a keen sport, who saw Life as a close imitation of a game of cards ( or poker ).
And was lucky enough to win two "boarding tickets" and "a pot of gold"!
In his hand, he held the Ace of Spades and the Ace of Hearts.
...and he hid his grin.
Red and black ace showed up on the table, and a grin spread
over Jack's face.
"Sorry boys, looks like its My Lucky Day!"
"I'll see you boys, tomorrow. Thanks for the money, by the way."
All for his own pleasure, and that of his friend.
He could see beyond the obvious, and wanted to travel the world.
He was carefree, yet studious; like being obsessed with people in a different kind of way.
He was blunt: people are people, that's what they are, money or not.
But you dare not tell him what he couldn't do or couldn't become;
He was ready to prove you wrong!
"Al Right, the moment of Truth", announces Jack.
"Somebody's Life's about to CHANGE.
"I'm sorry...you're not going to see your mom again for a long time.
" 'Cause we're going to AMERICA! Full house, boys! "
He recognized the beauty of the human form, if nothing else; especially the hand.
Man, did he make sketches with that hand of his!
He saw the naked subject as real; particularly fascinated by the feminine curvature.
He had the presence of mind, and the assiduity of the hand to bring your dream "figure" into reality on a sheet of paper.
He fancied that Iife should be mimicked as natural as it comes; by keeping it real.
And gave his love interest a "real" copy of her dreams; straight from his heart.
By so doing, his "vocation" or calling took him across the social barrier - winning a prize:
A special Lady, The Rose of Titanic.
There's a sudden paradigm shift toward the end of the voyage...a dream lady and an extremely expensive piece of jewellery.
The Heart of the Ocean.
It was Jack Dawson's sole pleasure to savour!
Ending of misery...
I'll change what chaos makes
For I Am the Titan.
And I'll make right
The endings of long ago;
And break
What madness creates.
( David Strontium )
This young man was aged 23years when he stepped foot on Titanic.
Legend believes he is the fictional hero of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Great Gatsby.
As "Jay Gatsby", Jack is said to have survived the wreckage of the Titanic.
And ten years later ( 1922 ), he moved to West Egg ( or King's Point ) on Long Island, New York.
He had joined the league of the nouveaux riches...a millionaire.
Our lovers act
- as stand-ins -
On a stage-managed
- Resurrection -
Where the pilgrim
Without faith can die;
And live again.
( Alan Harrington )
The tragedy of the RMS Titanic is not a savoury tale.
What is endearing to us is not the loss of >1,500 lives on that fateful voyage.
Our fascination lies in its immensity; the concept of an "Olympic-sized vessel".
The fact that it could carry many "passengers and cargo" on board.
Yet designed with: "Ultimate comfort and luxury".
And projected in the builders' minds to be "Un-sinkable".
"The Ship of Dreams".
Our dreams ought to be Titan-ic; expansive and indestructible.
That's the lesson for the man or woman who is a wanna-be.
The Titanic ends - but you've got to wake up!
And believe what you will.
Life unfolds, for everyone, like a reel-of-film.
It's a play of the senses: sights, and sounds, and motion.
A motion picture.
That's your life and my life. Our lives.
With lots of "suspense" and "what's next?"
Sights reveal themseves, non-stop, save for an occasional blink of the eye.
Whether wide awake or asleep, you can't stop the dynamic; it's on!
Motion pictures.
Sounds are primordial, to begin with; even in silence.
A powerful cosmic dialogue proceeds non-stop, between the outer universe and your inner being.
Sounds - speeches and songs - are full of energy.
Words or the lack thereof convey "pictures" in our minds.
Motion pictures.
That can be brought to life, or actualized.
Sights-and-Sounds display largely, our dreams, our aspirations.
Life's is a continuum. The motion is on.
Your life, my life, our lives.
Its a hustle and you must flow.
Reality changes; so you must dream...or...flow.
What part would you play?
What's your dream? What's your calling?
What sights-and-sounds are you willing to add, to your story?
Your motion picture?
And the universal motion picture?
He was never still:
There was always
- a tapping foot -
Or the impatient
- opening and closing of a hand -
He was balancing himself
On the dashboard of his car;
With that resourcefulness
- of movement ...
OF OUR NERVOUS, SPORADIC
GAMES.
This quality :
Was continually breaking through
His punctilious manner;
- In the shape of restlessness -
( The Great Gatsby )
Dreams: Love...Work.
Life is real. Reality is dynamic, not static.
A D-r-e-a-m is for real; because it is the vehicle for the n-e-x-t reality.
Your next reality. My next reality.
Books and movies are great tools; they help us feed our un-ending curiosity.
Including, amongst others, the The Holy Bible, The Great Gatsby and the Titanic.
They stand at the pinnacle of humankind's artistic and philosophical achievements.
For example, James Cameron in the role of a screen writer, transforms our reality
in a profound way; as in the Titanic.
"He uses letters as objects of ecstatic meditation, recombining them, to engender alphabetical
rapture", extols Eric Davis.
Films enable us open our "eyes" into the world; into an "ocean" of possibilities.
They're a window into both reality and dreams.
Titanic ( 1997 ).
It gained a wide acceptance, winning 11 Oscars at the the 70th Movie Academy Awards,
including Best Picture and Best Director.
Films are willing
To sacrifice a naive realism
In order to achieve realism
Of a deeper sort;
Like a poet
( Alan De Botton )
It became the first-ever movie to cross the billion dollar mark.
And above that, it draws us to the undeniable influence of cinematography in shaping modern civilization.
"A mirror and ever-expanding eye. It creates what it sees and destroys what it does not see...
[ It ] is a lie which makes us see the truth", acknowledges James Boughton, a film analyst.
Our goals on a daily basis, take us on a journey of enlightenment.
Whereby we make sacrifices to change who we are today;
In favour of what we can become tomorrow.
We dream...we love...we work; we respond to our higher "calling".
To be a Titan ; to reach "The Enlightend Self".
If a man ceases to believe
That they'll someday
- Become gods -
Then they'll someday
Become worms.
( Henry Millers )
We take our stars from Heaven, not the Earth.
Whatever God does will last forever.
Renaissance, a mundane cultural re-awakening is good.
Resurrection, a spiritual re-birth, is even better.
A man-made dream is a hit or a miss, like the Titanic.
A God-inspired dream is guaranteed, like Noah's Ark.
If you're a wanna-be,how long will your trade-mark last?
Yes, to be Titan-ic is to nurse an Olympic-size dream.
But, is your "Ship-of-Dreams" going to be Unsinkable?
I Pray God be the Captain!
Limited in his nature,
Infinite in his desire;
Man is a fallen god,
Who remembers heaven.
( Alphonse de Lamartine )
