Too Old to Dream New Dreams?
Posted: Thursday, October 14, 2010
by Donovan Baldwin
No Diet 4 Me
I work puzzles. I buy puzzle books, most commonly the Dell Crossword Special, and work my way through them. I work crosswords, Sudoku, logic puzzles, anacrostics, and, when I'm almost through with the book and keep forgetting to buy a new one, I work some puzzles called "figgerits".
These are simple little puzzles where you solve a few word clues by figuring out what the word is that the clue is hinting at. There are spaces for each letter in the word, and a number under each space. That number corresponds with a space in the solution of the puzzle. The solution is generally a short, pithy or witty statement of some kind.
However, I sometimes like to work them because I like those pithy or witty statements.
I just worked one this morning, and I was intrigued by the statement which was the solution:
"No one is ever too old to dream new dreams".
I'm 65 and a half, and, as my kids used to say, "I go long by that!"
While I agree with the statement, I was also curious about where it might have come from, so I did a little research. I found a few quotes which came close. I am not sure where the puzzle maker got his or her idea for their puzzle, but the closest quote I could find at the moment was from C. S. Lewis, author of "The Chronicles of Narnia".
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
How true.
Anyone who has ceased to dream has, at least in one sense, ceased to live.
It is from dreams that a shaping of the world arises. Sometimes, this shaping is for the good, sometimes for the bad. Whatever the future it presages, however, the change began with a dream. The dream, when it came, did not ask the age of the recipient.
Someone 100 years old has as much chance to dream the dream that makes the world a heaven on earth as a 40 year-old person or teenager. Right now, someone is dreaming of competing in the Olympics. Someone else is dreaming that they will solve the problem of preventing some illness. Another dreams of ending starvation, and yet another dreams of a day that no child will die in the arms of its mother. Some dream of space and time beyond imagination, but within the endless boundaries of dreams. Some are, for the moment, content to dream that someone special will recognize and return their love.
All these dreams are valid. Some are planned and plotted, while some simply occur.
Whoever you are, wherever your dream comes from, and whatever the path it beckons you to follow, do not deny it. It may not return again.
After all, as William Shakespeare said, "We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep".
Before you return to that sleep, take the time to live your dream, for you are never too old, or too anything, to dream new dreams...or perhaps the one you have dreamed for years but not yet lived.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Donovan Baldwin is a 65-year-old accountant, amateur bodybuilder, freelance writer, certified optician, and Internet marketer currently living in the Atlanta, Gerogia area. A University Of West Florida alumnus (1973) with a BA in accounting, he has been a member of Mensa and has been a Program Accountant for the Florida State Department of Education, the Business Manager of a community mental health center, and a multi-county Fiscal Consultant for an educational field office. He has also been a trainer for a major international corporation, and has managed various small businesses, including his own. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, with 21 years of service, he became interested in Internet marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes original articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has posted a series of articles on The Law of Attraction , and other self-improvement issues at xtramoney4me.net/internetmarketing/reviews/law_of_attraction_articles/index.html .
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Your article is very inspiring, Donovan, thank you!! I wrestle with this age thing all the time. There's so much media exposure of young people achieving dreams - which is great - but anybody over the age of 50 is kind of left out.But when you get there and beyond, it doesn't feel like any kind of age at all, and your dreams can still be very potent, maybe even stronger than ever before. You've given me a real boost today, thanks.Thank you, Jennifer. Very kind words and thoughts from you. They will boost MY day today! - Don
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