Here's an insightful post from the always-insightful Photon Courier. I wish you had comments, man!! His post references an article about kids being taught not to daydream, because there's no 'reward' in it. Great. Great. Way to kill the one thing that separates us from the beasts: imagination.
I'm sure the Wright brothers spent a lot of time daydreaming about what it would be like to fly before they decided to do it.
I'm sure skyscrapers were "daydreamt" before they were actually created.
People stared up at the moon since time immemorial, wondering, "What the hell is it like up there?'
And anyway, that's not even the real point. The examples I just used here are all bad. They are bad because they assume that "daydreaming" needs to have a POINT, a 'reward'.
How about just lying about daydreaming what it would be like to be in the circus? Just for the hell of it? Or daydreaming about aliens coming and living in your house? Or Ewan McGregor for that matter ... heh heh.
Made me think to myself, actually:
What do I daydream about? Do I daydream anymore? Hmmm.
Posted by sheilaToday I daydreamt of deviled eggs...and IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! :-p
Posted by: Dave J at May 17, 2004 05:12 PMhahahaha!
Like I said, Dave: there's an entire BOOK devoted to deviled egg recipes. For the true obsessive.
Posted by: red at May 17, 2004 05:14 PMI teach my kids that pipe dreams and daydreams are what's behind everything good that happens in life.
My current career (which I love), my re-born radio career (which I love), even the notion that I could have had a life with their mother (a mistaken dream, but without which they'd not exist), all started as daydreams. I make sure they all know it.
Posted by: mitch at May 17, 2004 05:52 PMYeah...maybe I should get comments...although the Blogger implementation looks pretty weak.
Sheila, how much time do you typically have to spend on troll-suppression?
Posted by: David Foster at May 17, 2004 06:42 PMDavid:
If by trolls, you mean people who randomly show up and start causing trouble and calling you names and picking fights: I don't really have that problem. At least not yet. I'm not big enough. Any time I've been linked by Glenn Reynolds, though, they all show up in droves. But it's not a regular problem.
If, however, by trolls you mean penis-enlargers and diet-programs: all you need is to install MT Blacklist, and one by one blacklist all those porno sites who bombard you. And it has been a godsend - it doesn't take any time at all to enter the URLs into the database, and then they are gone.
But in terms of people showing up and causing shit - I don't have that type of crowd on my blog. Thank God!
Posted by: red at May 17, 2004 09:00 PMThis is along the lines of people linking children converting to witchcraft and reading "Harry Potter." Why can't we allow our children to have an imagination and think a little? Is it so bad that they have some fantasy world going on in their head on occasion? I, myself, prefer to live in daydreams. They're so much nicer, and I can make up my own rules!
Posted by: ensie at May 18, 2004 01:28 AMI may have to not link you anymore, since my trolls seem to follow me around now. :-(
As for daydreaming: I was harassed for it almost constantly through school. It's reason #5,976 as to why I hate being in a classroom so much.
Posted by: Dean Esmay at May 18, 2004 02:11 AMSo what do I do with this novel that is pretty much worked out in my head? I was planning on downloading it soon....
Posted by: Outlaw3 at May 18, 2004 11:58 AMDean: I know! Your trolls follow you about, like you're the anti-hero in a fairy tale!
That's okay. Everyone obeyed my wish to take that shit off my blog. :)
Outlaw: I think everyone has a novel in their head. The trick is: putting pen to paper. As Dean and I can attest, right, Dean??
as I read the article, it wasn't so much the kids had been brainwashed out of daydreaming, but that they had done a 'cost-benefit analysis' and somehow figured it wasn't worth it.
I liked the statement about "what do you do simply for the fun of it?" I've known a few people in my life who didn't have ANYTHING they did that was there solely for fun - their lives were all work, and their hobbies were mostly competition-driven things. They were some of the boringest people I ever met.
I daydream on a regular basis. There *is* a benefit to it, regardless of what some might think: there were times in my life that it kept me sane, it provided me an escape for a few minutes.
Posted by: ricki at May 18, 2004 03:26 PMRicki -
I couldn't agree more. I also know people who don't factor in leisure time, or just "do nothing, daydream believah" time ... and it wouldn't work for me.
I get burnt out too quickly.
Posted by: red at May 18, 2004 06:08 PM