Thanksgiving marks a time for family and friends, a time to reflect on all we have and to give thanks for all the blessings we’ve been given.
On a broader scale, this can also be a time to dream about what can be – not just for ourselves, but for our community and society as a whole. In our routine-filled lives, we’ve become so accustomed to everyday duties that we’ve forgotten the integral mental exercise of dreaming. Dreaming allows us to transcend present circumstances and see a future of possibilities. Dreaming strengthens us to face today’s challenges and to push forward toward the promise of tomorrow.
So I must ask – where are all the dreamers?
A dream fulfilled can be a wonderful thing, but many of us don’t know how to dream. We dream too small. Often our dreams involve just us. We dream about professional growth, personal accomplishments – everything’s focused on what benefits us alone. But why? What about our obligation to the greater good of society?
If your dreams focus only on you, then you’re dreaming too small.
The metro area needs dream-weavers – visionaries who put themselves at risk to find and fulfill the potential of our community. We need dreamers dissatisfied with things as they are, dreamers who refuse to be mired in the present, dreamers who understand we’re here for a greater purpose.
During this time of thanks, I ask each of you to dream anew. I challenge you to dream how our community can be better off. The metro area needs, more than ever, individuals committed to the elevation of the greater good. How will your dreams help resolve the challenges we face in addressing crime, economic disparity, drug addiction? How will your dreams help make the metro area a better place to live and work?
Unfortunately, for many of us, dreaming ends when we wake. Although life’s demands may jar you from slumber, let your dreaming continue. I hope you will do your best dreaming while awake – for all of us.
Dr. Benjamin Ola. Akande is the senior advisor to the chancellor and director of the Africa Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as former president of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. He has a Ph.D. in economics and previously served as dean of the George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology at Webster University.