Wednesday, March 23, 2011

People who have no dreams

I’m worried about meeting people from the lowest income strata, people who feel they do not – and possibly really do not – have a single resource to put into making their dreams come true.

A friend at NYU said he’d never take the Greyhound bus from New York to Washington, DC again.  Why not? 

“Those people have no agency,” he said.  “They see themselves as victims.”  He takes the Bolt bus instead, full of 20-somethings who are over-educated and under-employed.

I tried to transfer to the Bolt bus, since these passengers might have more thoughts on their American dream and how they can achieve it.   But Greyhound already had me in its grasp and wouldn’t allow it.

What can I say to people who have no dreams?  Should I try to re-ignite the ones they lost, and encourage them to keep trying?  I’d like to be of some service to the folks I meet. 

I’m still hopeful of my dream, being published, having several spines with my name on them on the bookshelf, reaching the right audience.  I can’t imagine living without a dream, what a sagging, demoralizing succession of days life would be.

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