George Bernard Shaw’s quote, used by Robert F. Kennedy in his 1968 campaign, challenges us to dream. The full quote is: “Some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream things that never were and ask why not.” However, our instant focused society is moving so fast we don’t take enough time to contemplate, to dream.

Archibald MacLeish in his prose “Crisis of The Heart” faults us for failing to (dream) imagine and desire. So many ills of society and culture remain and even deepen in their tragic suffering because we fail to (dream), imagine, and then desire.

A CRISIS OF THE HEART

The crisis of our time, as we are beginning

slowly and painfully to perceive,

is a crisis not of the hands

but of the hearts.

It is a crisis of hunger–but not a crisis

created by any doubt as to our ability

to feed ourselves. It is a crisis of cold–

but not a crisis of cold created

by any doubt as to our ability

to put roofs over our heads

or clothes on our backs…

The failure is a failure of desire.

It is because we the people do not wish–

because we the people do not know

what it is that we should wish–

because we the people do not know

what kind of world we should imagine,

that this trouble haunts us.

The failure is a failure of the spirit:

a failure of the spirit to imagine,

a failure of the spirit to imagine and desire.

Archibald MacLeish

Another type of dream is the nightmares we are bound to have. We must, in painful detail, consider those things and events that cause immense pain and suffering to individuals, especially to the children of the world. Consider the sudden tragedy of the massacre of Israeli youth enjoying a music concert. Or the attempted genocide of the innocents of Gaza in response. The present war in Iran and its far-reaching and continuing destruction of bodies and buildings. Ever-present violence and tragedy in the Middle East, Jewish and Islamic. The brutal violence in Nigeria. Here we go again, and again, and again, and again………………Too, we must consider the continuing nightmare of the Epstein victims and the victims of human trafficking. The abuse and neglect of little children. There are many more nightmares in life that we must consider.

After contemplating the nightmares of life and sharing in the pain of those terribly hurt by (sin) another’s selfishness, we can quickly and joyfully move to imagine and desire (dream) a much happier circumstance of a world at peace, and individual children, warm, fed and loved. Security and warm sunshine, cherishing all, and indeed love for all…………….

Have our spirits, again, failed to (dream) imagine and desire such a happy and loving world?

The nightmares are always with us and before us. We must move beyond them and dream……………A much more descriptive word for imaging and desire (dream) is prayer. Let us, then, pray for an end to the nightmares and, rather, for all that is good and loving.

It is Lent. Let us move beyond the Cross of Christ to His and our Resurrection.