[CW: One Off and Feedback] But yet, What is a Dream?

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

One wonders perhaps, what is a dream? Is it merely a flashing of images, things within your mind that play themselves out in a random order, a phantom of memories. A puppet on a lonely string, dancing poorly in the pale moonlight. It's only a shadow of it's former self, an apparition of things long past, long dead. The husks of memories long laid to rest, risen again to haunt the mind.

Perhaps, it is not that. Perhaps, it is the cycling of a mind to fit together the pieces of a day. To remember, to store. They say the mind goes into an overdrive when you're sleeping. Of course... this they is about as real as this dream. So... they could be credible... right? Either way, the cogs turn. The Puzzle pieces fall together. They snuggle against one another in a warm embrace locking arms. Of course, what's not important falls through the cracks, never to be seen again. To rot within the darker recesses of the mind, forgotten and alone. But, the lucky few that survive are made a part of something greater. A Collective mind, a whole being. Though... how whole is it really? Who's to say that bad memories don't get stuck in the works? A shoddy system it seems to be.

Perhaps, it's an idle mind's form of entertainment. A pastime to waste away the hours of dark slumber. Something to occupy the mind as it rests in darkness. Stories of fantasy, bravery, whatever the mind dares wander to. After all, the mind can reasonably come up with anything it knew. Anything it had once idly heard in state of awareness to use to pass the time, now, in the blackness of sleep. Stars dance, a rapid fever pitch as they swing back and forth. A bold hero stands against evil. A single soul against wast evils. Elsewhere, a woman prepares a blade for another would-be hero. She decided to take her father's place since he had no living heir. Yet, within another town over, a Dragon razed ti to the ground. Not a hero was around from the battle. The Villagers fought tooth and nail, and eventually, they won. But, not without great loss. A single person sat amoungst a pile of the slain. Crimson stained the world, at least for them. They were merely a child... clinging to the hands of their parents, begging them not to go. A Beginning... A Misfortune that would one day, be paid back in the prevention of something like this.

Perhaps a dream is none of that. Perhaps, it truly is the pursuit of a noble goal. The want to strive for greatness of some sort. To grab hold of destiny and tear it from the heavens. To take control of one's thread on the loom of that fickle thing called Fate. Her threads ever tangled in a web of chaos and darkness that was this world. But, for jsut a moment, one could grasp that thread on the loom an d change it's direction, push it into a new road. Perhaps that is a dream.

Perhaps, a dream is all of these... or perhaps... none of them. It's impossible to know, hard to tell. For a dream, well... we have yet to answer the question and we never truly can. The question you ask? It's a simple one. Perhaps... the easiest one... and yet the hardest to answer. Because... what be a dream? If you asked me, I'd say much different then one who stood next to me. For each of us... our interpretation is not wrong and yet... it's not right either. For, what is a dream? It could be nothing, but it also, could be something. Often we describe dreams as fantasy, folly, the thoughts of a mad man only with given context no one will listen to. Maybe those dreams pushed one towards greatness; towards a discovery. However... when that happened... it ceased to be a dream. It became real. So... was it ever a dream in the first place, or just something we were too blind or too ignorant to see until then? Who knows? We may never know, we may never understand. Perhaps, somethings are meant to be just out of our grasp, for us to never be able to train a light on.

Perhaps... a dream is what you make it.

[Honchy]

I certainly love to dream! Every night, I try to study my dreaming patterns, and I look to my dreams for inspiration.

[Ironbound]

One clean month after you posted this, I have read it. I appreciate the titular question; after all, the entire CW revolves around just that.

As far as the subject is concerned, I'm of the school that advocates shutting up and doing one's job right, so a dream in that sense would only equate to a vision, goal or objective, regardless of how daring or adventurous it may be. In my book, a dream is synonymous with a goal, in that it is definable, achievable and purposeful. If there is even the slightest deviation, then the 'dream' becomes what I write off as a 'fantasy', that is, an idle thought that is pointless if it is involuntary, and worthless if it is a conscious daydream, as it is impotent, unachievable and seeks to satisfy a weak ego's desire for self-indulgence and escapism. Castles in the air, you know, and all that sort of thing. I do not say not to dream, as after all only dreamers can achieve; I merely give no consideration to idle thoughts, and don't include them in the definition of a dream. Likewise, fractured mental images that cycle through a sleeping, comatose or otherwise meditating mind are also not dreams, as they are only imperfections in the meditative field borne out of stress, fear or other lack of focused reconciliation with reality. True, restful and beneficial medication, whether it is active or passive in the form of sleep and repose, is always 'dreamless' and empty. The retention of memories being a subconscious process is not really 'dreaming' either. Thus, that singles out only one among your four postulations, at least from my perspective: that of imagination and achievement. Which is why I appreciate the closing line all the more; a dream is indeed what one makes it, or rather what one makes of it.

From a writing perspective, I must again appreciate your 'no-style' style. This is different from the other that I had read yesterday, and yet I could guess that it was yours, even had I not known that to begin with. I see a few minor errors of grammar and syntax, but I don't want to pick at them. It's certainly a good reflection, though, and I'm glad to have read it.

Edited April 30, 2016 by Viridescent