Those Unanswered Prayers

   When a person tries to fulfill their dreams or accomplishments, they often find that the result is less than what they expected. I am trying to teach this idea through the Grade 4 students' reading of Treasure Island.. Young Jim Hawkins doesn't know what to expect when he embarks on his adventure: he might be what you would describe as a very inexperienced boy who is expecting a life of pirates, swashbuckling and all sorts of run-ins with buried treasure, only to find a life of rain, waiting for things to happen, violence, failed trust, and treachery. These are not the kinds of things that any young person expects from a dream, yet somehow Treasure Island seems to be the contemplative 'laboratory' to understand the nature of wishes and aspirations.
   Many readers might pessimistically conclude that Jim was wrong to embark on his journey in the first place, and perhaps he should have at least stayed at home to take care of his mother, rather than going out on that journey. One of the things I try to do in the last session of the Treasure Island class is to ask this very same question in a more personal way: if you had to choose between the safe protection of the familiar and beloved, and the more perilous adventure of risking one's life for a dream, which would you choose, and why? Jim may have stayed behind, but would that have been the end of his dreams, or would he simply have found a different expression for those dreams? I really want the students to reflect on themselves, not just the book itself and its characters, because it does have a lot of relevance as they get older.
    Personally, I don't even have a particular answer to the above dilemma, but it seems that dreams are ways of awakening and maturing one's learning about the deeper contours of one's emotions and relationships. It's only when the dream 'touches the road' of reality, using its bumpy or rickety wheels to steer around, that we have the stark contrast that allows us to better know our position in life. Without that contrast, it can be hard to really know or articulate ourselves and our position and values in life. This is why I feel that dreams are essential to articulating identity and values, even if dreams are not realistic and hardly ever come true. Rather than rejecting our dreams for being impractical or even disappointing at times, we can perhaps see the dream as a chance to entertain 'counter realities', which in turn can help us better know ourselves, what our preferences are, and what conflicts arise between the desire and the pursuit of that desire.