What Dream May Come

I am a dreamer, both figuratively and literally. I have a vivid imagination--which can be a help or a hindrance--and I often dream vivid dreams while asleep. Sometimes I wake up from a dream so beautiful that I never want to forget it. But I usually do. Right after I awaken I clearly recall what I saw and what I felt, but as the morning goes on those images fade and within a day or so I forget that I dreamed at all.

As this election cycle nears an end I've begun to see a correlation between dreams and politics, especially when it comes to Presidential elections.

I admit regretfully that I did not vote the first election year I was eligible. After that I began to exercise my right and duty to participate in the political process, but the election that got me truly hooked on politics was in the year 2000. I had stayed up to watch the election results and witnessed the major networks first proclaim George W. Bush the winner, then all renege for reconsideration when the Florida results became to be reported and it looked as though Al Gore might be the winner. I was up that night until 4 a.m. witnessing confusion among the networks and Al Gore's decision not to concede, only going to bed when the networks reported the both candidates were retiring for the evening and nothing would be decided until morning. Of course, nothing was decided for a month while ballots were recounted and "hanging chads" became a household phrase. I felt I had a real stake in that election. I really cared about who won. And from that point on, our nation's political system became extremely interesting to me.

The eight years following that election have taught me much. I already knew that candidates don't necessarily or, rather, can't keep all their promises. Our political system is not that simplistic. But what I've learned is that even those whose candidate is elected can experience disappointment in the following years. Hence the connection between politics and dreams.

Politicians promise much while running for office. It is our nature as humans to want to believe that the candidate we choose can make a real difference. But it is after the election that reality sets in. Like that beautiful dream we don't want to forget, the election promises slip away in the quagmire of daily politics. After a while the promises we hoped would be realized begin to slip away and in the end we don't even remember why it was so important that the candidate of our choice be elected.

It's at times like that the the reality of my faith becomes so important. When the laws I dislike aren't repealed and the candidate I voted for doesn't produce what he or she promised, it is so comforting to know that our Father in heaven is in control. Nothing has happened that He didn't foresee; nothing has happened that He didn't allow. When I understood the truth of the Gospel, when I trusted Jesus Christ for my present and my future, that is when I cast the only vote in my life that has any meaning.