Is it worthwhile to have hopes and dreams?

[coloradodem2005]

My experience has taught me no.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

1. I am curious ...

what brought this thought to your mind ?

[McKenzie]

2. Possunt quia posse videntur

they can because they think they can. (Virgil)

Possibly that is a slightly oblique answer to your question. But, giving up hope of anything good is probably accepting defeat at the outset. Some situations are hopeless, I agree. Without hope though life assumes a rather negative flavour.

Mind you, a series of shitty things happening can wear one down to the point where apathy and cynicsm rule.

[coloradodem2005]

3. You've just described the last 2 years of my life.

n/t

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

4. What exactly has happened to you ?

Again I am curious .

[coloradodem2005]

6. I got screwed out of a carrer path I really wanted.

I don't want to go back to trying that path again and don't want to expand upon the story because I have told it many times. To compound upon that, I have had a hard time finding a job, grad school has not worked out for me, one of my friends had died last year, Mutherfucker got re-(s)elected and I have an idea of wanting to do something paid in politics, working for an elected official or a think tank, but I don't know how to achieve that and I have the feeling I am unqualified, like I seem to be for everything else even though I have a Bachelor's Degree.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

11. You and I both could use a drink .

That's if you drink . But yeah the past years have been crappy for me too . I totally ignore the news now that MF has been re-selected . My bf is heading to Iraq next month - there goes my heart . I currently can't sleep , don't feel like eating either . I am sorry that your friend died . You have one up on me , at least you have your college degree . I am going back to get mine . Never give up .

[The Traveler]

5. In that context

read the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came". It tells of the wasteland crossing so many of us must face at some point in our lives, usually more than once. The reward comes to those who insist on perservering until the end.

[havocmom]

9. My sister would say yes, while I say no.

Interestingly, her dreams have come crashing down around her head and mine have come true. Go figure, and hang on. The light at the end of the tunnel is not always another train. But sometimes, it is a long damned tunnel.

[Kenneth ken]

7. hopes and dreams are nice

but the only thing that really matters is getting up every day and fighting the good fight, no matteer how much you get knocked down.

In the movie Rocky, he didn't win the fight, he got the crap beat out of him. But he was still on his feet and willing to fight at the final bell. He did that without hopes or dreams; no where in that film does he express any belief that he will actually win the fight.

On the other hand, he did get the girl.

[neweurope]

8. Yes it is worthwhile. They give us the strength to go on.

As long as we don't stay stuck in them :)

----------------
Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague

[WindRavenX]

10. of course

Without hopes and dreams, what is the point of it all? I believe that one's own desires should move the person to never accepting a static life of mere homeostasis; your dreams should move you to keep going, to keep fighting for something- even if what you desire or fight for changes.

[chicagojoe]

12. When you give up on your dreams you die.

[BiggJawn]

19. Gee, did that come from a Dr. Phil book?

Then I must be a fucking Zombie, because I'm not dead yet.

If you have no dreams, you are truly free, because you don't spend all your time sitting around wailing "but I cudda bin a CONTENDA!!!" like my girlfriend does.

What kills you isn't the loss of the dream, but the grief over what was never going to be. Give that up and just take each day as it comes.

[chicagojoe]

26. No. Dr. Phil books are for idiots.

If you have dreams and aspirations, and you give up on them, you become diminished. Of course sitting around whining about your dreams that didn't come true gets you nowhere. Dreams don't magically come to fruition. The dream is the vision. Busting your ass to make that dream real is what matters. To have no vision is an
awfully empty way to go through life.

[BiggJawn]

27. I knew that.

Dr. Phil books being for idiots and all.

STILL sounded like something either he or Stuart Smalley would say,
or something on a poster with a mountain and an eagle on it in some car salesman's office...

"To have no vision is an
awfully empty way to go through life."

Why would you say something like that? Wouldn't you think that there are enough things in everyday that are wonderful and interesting without having to lay stupid "stretch goals" on yourself?

I learned long ago that there is a whole hell of a lot less stress and unhappiness in just "being" than setting yourself up for disappointment with "dreams". External factors cannot be controlled, and it is those same external factors that often kill dreams. Ask an IT hot-shot who saw his anticipated corner office packed up and sent to Delhi about what happened to HIS dream.

If all your dreams turn to shit, THEN you might die, probably by your own hand.

[sandnsea]

13. I have adequacies

I've categorized them as happy, proud or purposeful. Different activities fulfill me in different ways. My life hasn't turned out as I had dreamed, but looking back I have done things that have been fulfilling which is all I had ever hoped for. Now I just hope to get up every day and do something that will make me either happy, proud of an accomplishment, or purposeful and useful. And whatever I do in the future will have to fit neatly in one of those categories, or I'm not going to do it. I don't know if that helps, but that's where I'm at, at 47.

[Kenneth ken]

14. .

:thumbsup:

nice attitude, and phrasing. That sounds a lot like the way I go about things.

:hug:

[Califooyah Operative]

15. A quote.

"A word about my personal philosophy. It is anchored in optimism. It must be, for optimism brings with it hope, a future with a purpose, and therefore, a will to fight for a better world. Without this optimism, there is no reason to carry on. If we think of the struggle as a climb up a mountain, then we must visualize a moutnatin with no top. We see a top, but when we finally reach it, the overcast rises and we find ourselves merely on a bluff. The mountain continues on up. Now we see the "real" top ahead of us, and strive for it, only to find we've reached another bluff, the top still above us. And so it goes on, interminably."
-Saul D. Alinsky - Rules for Radicals: A pragmatic primer for realistic radicals.

[bloodyjack]

16. Probably not.

Beauty and youth: in vain to these you trust
When youth and beauty shall be laid in dust
Blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah
I forget what comes after

I read that somewhere in the Iliad

[Guaranteed]

17. I was in your position just a year or so ago.

But I finally broke down and decided on a law career path. Things are going great for me, now.

Just break down and do what you're good at. Everyone has a niche of some kind. Just figure out whatever that is, and figure out how to make money with it.

It's there, man, somewhere, I'm tellin ya.

[BBradley]

18. Albert Camus believed that Sisyphus could keep rolling his boulder

because in that instant before it rolled back down the mountain he might have a tiny sliver of hope that just maybe that would be the time he made it to the top.

Hopes and Dreams are great. The experience of living my life and reflecting and learning from it are my main joys, but without a little bit of hope I don't think humans could keep on living.

[SarahB]

20. I think so.

Naturally, I'm a negative person and often have to fight myself not to be. I used to think it along the lines of being a realist, but over time I kind of figured out it ends up just being an excuse not to try out of one's own fears. Sometimes crap happens. No doubt about that. Sometimes good things take awhile too, but what else are you going to do? Give up? Stagnate? Life is about moving forward and facing what you have to face sometimes. I hope things get better.

[MsAnthropy]

21. You can either live in hope (like liberals) or fear (like conservatives)

Everyone needs some reason to get out of bed in the morning, you have to decide what that is. Life will knock you down, it's your job to get back up.

[JVS]

22. Dude, are you in post-graduation funk mode?

[coloradodem2005]

24. For the last two years. But it goes deeper than post-grad funk.

n/t

[Left Is Write]

23. It's not only worthwhile, I daresay it's necessary in order to keep going.

[leftofthedial]

25. if it makes you feel better

it's okay, but a few things are clear.

there is no justice.

life is not fair, in fact, it has become less and less fair.

hard work and playing by the rules have no instrinsic value.

dreams very rarely come true, and when they do it is a fluke.

"they" will screw you if they can

[Bok_Tukalo]

28. I think a rich fantasy life can be worthwhile, yes

<eom>

[Beware the Beast Man]

29. Hey, it's not so bad!

Have a lollipop...