Dreaming
“I am not interested in your happiness. I’m not sure it’s all it’s cracked up to be … I’d like to substitute something else for its search … I want to talk about dreaming.”
The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison contains so much truth and wisdom that it’s almost unbearable to consume it in one volume.
What I read today, Morrison's commencement address to the Sarah Lawrence class of 1988, should be required reading. I wanted to shout it from a mountaintop, so thought at the very least I could post about it here.
Oh, how I wish I heard this voice speaking to us now; how I wish this was a political platform; how I wish this viewpoint could be seen in every conversation about the critical issues we currently face.
Morrison doesn't just tell us to dream. She tells us how, and also why it is crucial.
“Dream the world as it ought to be … Imagine, envision what it would be like to know that your comfort, your fun, your safety are not based on the deprivation of another. It’s possible. But not if we are committed to outmoded paradigms, to moribund thinking that has not been preceded or dappled by dreaming. It is possible, and now it is necessary. Necessary because if you do not feed the hungry, they will eat you, and the manner of their eating is as varied as it is fierce.”
The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison contains so much truth and wisdom that it’s almost unbearable to consume it in one volume.
What I read today, Morrison's commencement address to the Sarah Lawrence class of 1988, should be required reading. I wanted to shout it from a mountaintop, so thought at the very least I could post about it here.
Oh, how I wish I heard this voice speaking to us now; how I wish this was a political platform; how I wish this viewpoint could be seen in every conversation about the critical issues we currently face.
Morrison doesn't just tell us to dream. She tells us how, and also why it is crucial.
“Dream the world as it ought to be … Imagine, envision what it would be like to know that your comfort, your fun, your safety are not based on the deprivation of another. It’s possible. But not if we are committed to outmoded paradigms, to moribund thinking that has not been preceded or dappled by dreaming. It is possible, and now it is necessary. Necessary because if you do not feed the hungry, they will eat you, and the manner of their eating is as varied as it is fierce.”
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B. P.
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Feb 10, 2020 02:47PM
I've been talking about this book since I read it last year, but most folks in my circle are afraid to read non-fiction. Their loss. I've checked this book out from my library more than any other (unfortunately, my budget does not permit me to buy it at the moment) and I am glad that they list where these essays came from in the back of the book so that I could download the pdf of two of my favorite essays.
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B. P. wrote: "I've been talking about this book since I read it last year, but most folks in my circle are afraid to read non-fiction. Their loss. I've checked this book out from my library more than any other (..."I can see why you'd keep going back to this one. I can't buy it now either, but it is going to the top of books I'll buy when I can. I was hoping to find this essay online, and just link to it, but didn't find it. So much good stuff in here, and I'm less than a fourth of the way into it!
Thank you for this blog. Morrison's message is what we need to hear and ponder right now.
Ginger wrote: "Thank you for this blog. Morrison's message is what we need to hear and ponder right now."I think so too, Ginger, and I appreciate you reading this!
