“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. “ Paul Valery
This idea struck me in two ways recently. First, in class we have talked a lot about research lately. More particularly, the discussion focused on marriage and family trends in the U.S. For example, a recent Meta-analysis authored by Hanson and Zogby (2010) was published in an Oxford journal, Public Opinion Quarterly, which analyzed many public opinion polls since the 1980s. The title of the article was “The Polls—Trends: Attitudes about the American Dream.” It explains that “findings suggest that a majority of Americans consistently reported that the American Dream (for themselves and their family) is more about spiritual happiness than material goods. However, the size of this majority is decreasing.” Increasing materialism, increasing divorce rates, abuse in all its various and insidious forms, condescending opinions of motherhood and fatherhood, effects of having fewer children on social security, and many other trends have concerned social scientists in recent years.
Are these the products of our quest to realize the “American Dream”? Granted, this term has meant many things to various people since before our nation’s inception, but this ideal has always included the ideas of prosperity, security, and “the pursuit of happiness.” Who can deny the fact that family plays a major role in the attainment of such a dream? It seems somewhat distressing to find such a blaring contradiction in the character of our society. How can we realize our dreams of economic, social, familial, and individual prosperity, security, and happiness when the very fabric of our society is breaking down at the family level? If we think we can ignore these problems and continue to “live the dream”, then we have divorced ourselves from reality and it’s time to wake up!
Secondly, and on a more personal note, my effectual contributions to the prosperity, security, and happiness of my present and future family depend on my ability to move past the dream stage. What are the products of my efforts to realize my dreams? Do I operate on the knowledge that my role as son and brother, and eventually husband and father has an incredible impact on the individuals that make up my society? Do my habits, my communications, and my reactions truly reflect my purest most noble dreams? I am happy to say that in many of the most important aspects my relationships with my family members have provided a great deal of prosperity, security, and happiness in my life as well as in the lives of others. These joys were conceptualized when I began to dream; I realized that there is something to be gained by developing and ideal for myself and my family. That ideal has been shaped and perfected by the eternal truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as by practical knowledge gained by experience and education. These joys, however, would have remained wholly imagined, and never reality if I had simply dreamed of them. I know that in some ways I still need to “wake up.” I must be, know, and do better to correct inconsistencies between my character and my dreams; so the journey continues…
