"The Beginning"

Once upon a time, I believed that having dreams of my own was wrong. Now I dream incessantly.

It does not matter when or why I believed such nonsense; what matters is that second part. I now dream without ceasing, and even act on some of these dreams. One of them is about to begin today, this very evening. The romantic in me wants to describe the magic I swear must be in play every time 300 tons of metal and people’s baggage careen off the runway and float for a second before accelerating to the vessel’s cruising altitude; meanwhile, the cynic in my mind laughs derisively and reminds me that most plane crashes occur at takeoff.

The cynic and the romantic will need each other in the following days, I think. The romantic will need the cynic to remind her to take out the headphones at night and pay attention to the streets around her, dear God for safety’s sake. The cynic will need the romantic to put her in her proper place—advisor, not dictator—and remind her to let me enjoy the wonder of a brand new environment. When I do it right, this push and pull looks less like a tug-of-war and more like a modern dance set to whatever song is popular at the moment.

You may think that the romantic needs to lead in the dance; you may think that the cynic should lead; but the way I see it, they need to take turns leading. I say this because Once Upon a Time, I believed that only cynicism should lead, and missed so much joy as a result. Then I flung myself into the arms of romanticism, only to find that following only her led to so much needless suffering. Now I dream incessantly, and the romantic softens cynicism into a healthy skepticism. Now I act on my dreams, and the cynic strengthens romanticism into a beautiful sense of wonder.

So when the plane takes off tonight, romaticism-turned-wonder and cynicism-turned-skepticism will look out the window at Boston’s shore, lined with warm lights, and dream of new shores, and new lights. I will settle into my seat, listen to music, and rest until the plane lands. I will live happily every after, yes...but more importantly, I will live well.

The Beginning.