There's a fascinating difference between an optimist and a practical man. You see optimism and practicality are almost the opposites of each other. A completely practical person is a perfect example of a pessimist. Such a man is free of the flights of fancy. He has no time for dreams, he is the guiding light to all those fools who are still in the grip of childish illusions, who believe that if you try hard enough things are possible, that even if it's never been done before it doesn't matter, you can still do it, that you can be one of those persons who can reach out and change what is around them.
An eminently practical person has no such problems to face. He's like a rat on a wheel. He knows that he needs to run on that wheel and that's all he's here for. That's practicality for you. He thinks about the food that he'll get at the end of the day after all that running. He thinks about the comfort of routine, the foreknowledge of what is the shape of the time that is coming. He'll make sure that this time doesn't change anything inside or outside. He ensures that when tomorrow comes he has the same wheel to run on. But, he doesn't bother about the why. He doesn't ask what if. These questions are a disease that plagues only a selected few. The unfortunate, the lepers. The dreamers, who want to know what's beyond the wheel. Who ask why do I run on the same wheel over and over again.
Asking questions is the most foolish thing that you can do. Don't be mislead by all those books that you read as a child. There's a reason adults don't need them anymore; because all those words, all those messages, all that morality has no place in the world of grown ups. The sign of intelligence is to stick to the beaten path. You move on a path that's tread not by thousands but by millions. The more crowded the path the more intelligent it makes a man. It's a certified highway. The best road that you can take; that you're expected to take. Even if there's a traffic jam, you don't deviate from it. You don't say let's try that sideroad, the small byway. Because if you're taking a new road it shows that you're questioning the existing one. And questioning is strictly prohibited in an intelligent world. Why should you ask? Do you think you're any smarter than the millions before???
Fortunately or unfortunately, intelligence is something which adds up with numbers. The intelligence of a million will always be superior to the intelligence of one man. Or so they want you to believe. Maybe it's true too. But imagination is something which is not propotional to the number of applicants. If that would've been the case then China and India would be superpowers. A million people don't make one Einstein.
This is why I disregard the so called intelligence and practicality so scrupulously. I am no mouse on the wheel, thank you very much. I go where I please and do what I please. But, there's a tradeoff. Nobody likes the rat who walks away. Who'd run the wheel then? That's why "mature", "intelligent" and "practical" people always mock imagination. To them it's just a tool that they can use once in a while but the world can't run on imagination is it? It's like art, beautiful but dispensible. And if the kings and dictators of bygone eras would've been more practical then the world would be without art. But then that's a complete contradiction isn't it! A practical man can't be a king although a king might use practicality from time to time. To be a king you need to believe that there's life beyond the ordinary that there's something more that you can make of your life. And this belief is scarce in an intelligent man.
To dream is to envision and to follow it is to believe. The world has a very poor memory. It remembers only those who dream. How very cruel?! It's run by those intelligent, no-nonsense folks but it doesn't remember them. It doesn't bother with them. History is the memory of this world and you won't find the name of any tom, dick or harry in history. History keeps track of dreams and dreamers, er.. should I say successful dreamers.
It's a gamble, you see. You could be a rat and run the wheel and live a fairly comfortable life; with the knowledge that you're an ordinary intelligent man who lived his life more or less like everybody around. Or you could dream, you could believe and you could leave the wheel. There's a lot of stick that must be taken. You are no longer considered as intelligent, "level-headed". It's a beautiful term - "level-headed", it says you have as good a head as the other person. It's a stamp of approval. you're as big an idiot as the rest so you are passed.
But the most beautiful thing life gives you is the choice...to be a dreamer or to be level-headed. Mind you, to dream does not mean to achieve but merely to believe. There are no guarantees in this game. If you want guarantees then stick with the wheel. To dream is to gamble. It's a Russian Roulette. Only you bet yourself on the roll of a dice. Destiny decides who wins and who loses but you control what you believe and what you dream. Nobody takes away the dream or your belief. That's the only freedom in this world. To dream and to believe. The rest is all intelligence...the language of idiots.
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