In this land of freedom and liberty, we all have the opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Or at least, that’s how the Dream goes. But no one person’s dream is stronger than human nature. No matter how far you run, you can never escape yourself, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness become forgotten ideals, just like last night’s dreams.
One of our strongest traits is our desire to put down those that each of us feels is beneath us; and perhaps one of the few traits that can often overcome this is our willingness to submit to the yoke, sometimes passively and sometimes with mumbled complaints, but nonetheless submit. Only sometimes the yoke is disguised as Kool-Aid.
Those who sought out this land sometimes were escaping the yoke – the Pilgrims come to mind – but running only provides a temporary reprieve. Soon followed debtor’s prisons, indentured servants, slaves, and continued disenfranchisement of women. (Even though, by that time, England had seen two sovereign queens, and named one of the colonies after the second of the two.)
Let’s pursue this Dream, not with the hopes of casting off the yoke or stopping the corruption that comes with power, but rather, to wake without waking, to watch the Dream playing out around us, part of it yet separate. We shall be the lucid Dreamers, the pilgrims of the American Dream, and better understand our American mythos. And perhaps we’ll grow a little closer to the ideals through not pursuing them, unlike so many others before us, who have pursued them and failed.