The Foolish Dream:

“To live without hope is to not make unrealistic demands on life. It is to live without myths, without consolation. “– Albert Camus

“Hope is the worst of all evil, for it prolongs the torment of men.” - Nietzche

Long back, when I was 17, I shared the same life view as these illustrious people. I accepted with great indifference my lot in life. Dreams and hope created illusions, desires that I would have to thirst after; it was a barrier to staying content. Happiness was acceptance of the futility of life as I knew it.

It is with this mindset that I entered the teens group, the ministry had just been founded and was trying to establish its roots. Little ministries slowly started popping up from within like the miscall ministry and the library ministry. Inevitably it became a need to start a music ministry since a lot of our prayer meetings involved joyful, action songs. A few of us recognized this and took up the responsibility.

Three of us ragtag musicians who were complete amateurs would meet up for practice every week in my house. Although I enjoyed practice I was left with a sense of dissatisfaction as I kept comparing our little, unprofessional music ministry with the classy, professional ministry the youth had and wondered when we would ever get to that level. I always had the niggling thought at the back of my head that we needed more members, more vocalists and instrumentalists for this to turn into a full, fledged ministry.

It was at this time that one of the more ambitious members of the ministry kept talking about his dream to start a band. Naturally I was amused. Since I love being pessimistic, I laughed at the fact that we don’t even have a proper music ministry forget a band. Our skills were far from excellent; in fact none of us had even had formal music training and had picked up the essentials of the instruments by ourselves. I laughed at the hope he harbored, the foolish dream.

Looking back I realize that this guy’s dreams were met with a lot of laughter, jokes and contempt. It was the kind of dream that little kids have when they are too young to know that the practical feasibility of their dream materializing was impossible. And I followed the crowd’s herd mentality. I shook my head believing this to be an impractical endeavor. There is nothing more poisonous than the foolish dream, I was convinced.

A few months later this guy had started recruiting some potential members for his band. This was a source of great bemusement for me, was he so blinded that he thought this could actually materialize? Was he deaf to the concerns of those around him? Did he not see how impossible it was for a teenager who only knew a few chords on the guitar to form a fully fledged band?

Regardless he carried this band along slowly and steadily in the face of obstacles. This was his ambition, his hope, his dream and he seemed immune to what others thought of it. To me it looked like a lone man’s struggle, he was swimming against the tide and sooner or later the tide would overwhelm him.

He started practicing in earnest with the few people he had approached. Their skills were not up to par but there was a semblance of a band that had now started emerging. Over the years old members were switched, new ones were recruited and the seemingly amateur band had racked up some crazy skills.

Their hard work slowly started paying off, their progress was exponential; they had graduated from the amateur band I knew. This was no longer a fleeting, teenage dream of an ambitious boy; it had become a reality.

Today this band is comprised of the most talented individuals I know. They have recorded several originals, they play live for retreats and programs all over the country and it’s an additional feather to their cap that all of them are so young, the majority just on the cusp of adulthood.

When I think of how this all started, the hope of a starry eyed teenage boy who decided to swim against the tide, I allow myself a small smile. What a funny way for God to teach His daughter, the power of hope.

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” –Shel Silverstein