It seems to me that every living person on this planet habitually engages in daydreams. Some of those daydreams are passing flights of fancy where the dreamer pauses from the daily grind of existence and ponders a what if moment.
What if I win a lottery is a timely example. But some people take the event further than just the moment of the winning ticket reveal, and construct an entire story around life after the lottery. A narrative replete with all the elements that comprise the drama of our lives. Generally speaking there’s a villain, some challenges and ultimately honor and glory for the hero of the story.
Us. You.
And comfort.
I mean, what the hell’s the point of a lottery daydream without a villa and a sportscar? Different people will have different luxuries and so a Ferrari might not be everyone’s preference, but ultimately there’s some commonality that includes not flying coach, and whatever else you choose that makes it evident to the peons that you’re stylin.
But daydreams are very much a reflection of the era that we inhabit as much as they’re an indicator of the personality of the dreamer. A couple of hundred years ago a typical daydream might include not dying in childbirth, or avoiding a pillaging horde or pandemic rampaging through the countryside at that particular moment in time.
Age is another determining factor to daydream content. Once you’re past thirty then most people find themselves dropping the idea of being a professional athlete. It’s kind of odd that as improbable as the lottery dream may be that we still apply some pragmatism to our reveries. So, we hold out some hope for that lottery windfall but we’ve accepted the fact that we’re not going to hoist Le Coupe Stanley unless we’re an owner.
Reverie reality, where you can conceive of a future favorably altered, but the past has passed. So, a pragmatic lottery daydream may not necessarily focus on how you’re going to spend your winnings, but rather on who you’re going to leave them to.
Time can be of the essence and time can be the essence. I sometimes wonder if a multitude of Mitty’s inhabit the planet, or if most people just have a Mitty moment now and again. The latter scenario is more likely I think. Reality has a tendency to intrude and perpetual daydreaming doesn’t pay the bills. Plus it’s an unwise state of existence if you’re driving or about to perform heart surgery.
So I think that it’s safe to say that everyone daydreams, but not equally. Some people don’t have much imagination and I’m guessing that other people think the whole process is a monumental waste of time. The Pragmatics among us, aptly defined by the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy as knowing the world as inseparable from agency within it.
Still, the whole point of daydreaming is to refashion the world so as to escape from that agency. But in order to escape it’s best to be safe, fed, nonessential and comfortable. Otherwise the odds of the dreamer being or creating a problem rise considerably.
It’s kind of a paradox. You need to focus to fashion that Mise en scene, so that the stage is set to withdraw from the circumstances you just finished managing. You need to pay particular attention so that you can safely pay no attention. Essentially, you may live in a dream, but you need to either work hard or get lucky to be able to say you’re living the dream. In fact, I’m going to suggest that even with luck, the work component is necessary to maintain living the dream status.
It’s just a different kind of work where prolonged construction of ones circumstances is replaced with interminable maintenance of those circumstances. Ideally that maintenance is much less demanding and perhaps even pleasurable because of the effort that preceded it.
But, one way or another the effort is mandatory.
Even if you get lucky.