We need Utopia

06.05.2021-I dared to dream

This week has been so hard. I feel it in my body, I feel it in the heavy words of my friends. I feel it in the distances separating us all, in the lack of air, in the sound of bullets. The sparks have just left so many of us. And I don’t want to say there’s a silver lining for such a grim reality (because there isn’t). I don’t want to talk about hope either (hoping just hurts at this point). But can we just - for one moment - close our eyes and and dream about something else?

I remember years ago having a conversation with a friend about the dreams we had in life. I was younger and the world was in a slightly less shitty state than now. Dreaming was still hard, but somehow it made more sense. I had this whole mentality about dreaming something, anything. We could dream about the most impossible thing (you want to fly? so be it). And then we should ask ourselves: What can I do now that will get me closer to this dream? Regardless of how impossible the dream seems, what possibilities are within our reach now? What paths can we choose so that maybe one day that fabulous dream may-be part of reality?

So in hard times such as these, I try to go back to this mental space of dreaming of a world that is just a way happier version of the one we have now. I’m not at all an optimistic person, but I can dream and try to make the choices that will take reality (for all of us) a tiny bit closer to it. And my message here is NOT one of "if you try hard enough you’ll suceed" (that’s not how the world works). My message here is that we can dream of a different reality. Yes, that is called utopia. And that’s what we all need to reach for.