Words

Today I was rummaging through stacks of old papers and files in an attempt to find some inspiration for the umpteenth cover letter I have to write. I’m not sure what made me think that I find inspiration in old papers and long forgotten files but that part of my psyche has never made sense to me. Maybe I’d written the perfect descriptor of my work ethic, skills and personality on a scrap of paper and for some utterly unknown reason stuck it in a file marked “2007 Tax Return”. But alas no such luck. What I did find was a printout of a poem by Langston Hughes and it made me think.

A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun

Or fester like a sore –

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten mean?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

I first heard of Langston Hughes when I was in 7^th grade when my English teacher gave us a new poem or quotation each week that we had to memorize and recite. I’m not entirely sure why she did that but nearly 15 years later I still remember Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage/And all the men and women merely players/The have their exits and their entrances/And one man in his time plays many parts” from As You Like It as clearly as I remember Langston Hughes “Dreams”. I don’t know anybody else who was in that class with me all those years ago so I’m not sure if it’s just me who held on to these quotes. But for me it was the beginning of collecting words from others and I haven’t stopped since. I have notebooks on my bookshelf filled with quotes that I find ranging from inspiration to downright stupid.

Not too long ago I came across a quote that encompassed my reasons for collecting words and expressed it infinitely more eloquently that I could ever hope. I collect words because words survive. I collect words because I never know when I am going to be at a loss for them. I collect words because I am comforted that people have stood where I am standing now. I collect words because it is more space efficient than collecting vinyl records and less creepy than collecting dead bugs. But mostly I collect words because “Words are sacred…if you get the right ones in the right order you can nudge the world a little” (Tom Stoppard).

I like to think that was what my English teacher was trying to teach us – at least that’s what I learned.

For me what I take away from finding this poem again is that dreams are necessary. Goals are great and realistic but its dreams that can make life exciting – try to walk in the footsteps of giants. You never know if you can get there unless you give it a go. And that’s something that I have to constantly remind myself. I will never know the depth of my abilities unless I have the dream and the persistence to keep trying. That is by no means suggesting that picking myself up and dusting myself off to start all over again is easy because of course it isn’t. Giving up on a dream may seem like a good option justified as mature realism but for me I think it would just sag like a heavy load.

And with that I shall leave you with a thought from somebody else and a photograph from me.

“I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.” – George Bernard Shaw

~ by unspecifiedrihan on February 14, 2012.