I spend a lot of time daydreaming; I always have. I spent a lot more when I was young had the ability to lay on a couch all day starting out the window. I used to say “doing nothing” was my favorite activity, which is far from the case presently. But I still enjoy just thinking for thinking’s sake.
It seems like I used to see other people daydreaming, but I hardly see it anymore. At the bus stop, on the BART, everyone is engaged in some gadget or another. A few are reading books. They seem well absorbed and content. The other day, though, I saw someone on the transbay bus staring out the window. That’s when it dawned on me that I really don’t see this anymore. The scenery from the Bay Bridge is often breathtaking and I’m at at a loss as to what people see on their device that is more stunning. I guess it just must look different to me. But also it’s the thoughts that I have when looking at beautiful things, or even just experiencing the sights and sounds of the world, that are important to me. Yet it seems that these have little value to most people.
In reality, they never did. How many kids are admonished to “stop daydreaming”? It seems that these admonishments haven taken hold and the daydreaming has stopped. It doesn’t seem like a loss. The world has gone on. No one seems to suffer from lack of it. Did daydreaming ever had a purpose?
According to Wikipedia, daydreaming is associated with the creative process. (If you read the entry, there are some good footnotes as well.) Most people in a capitalistic society are not engaged in particularly creative endeavors, so in fact daydreaming could be seem as a waste of time from an individual standpoint. Reading the news and gathering information, communicating with others, etc. would probably be as a more effective use of time if one has no creative outlet. Also, people with dull, rote jobs may spend much time daydreaming at work and would rather use their time for other activities.
Overall, the U.S. has made it clear that creativity and arts has little values. It’s usually the first programs cut from dwindling school budgets. Grants for the arts are also in the first cuts to any municipal budget. Also, careers in the arts are woefully underpaid. For many people, it can only be a hobby.
Conversely, hobbies are often the very activity that give life purpose and meaning.
In any case, my daydreaming may be out of step with the masses, but it is actually very useful for my creative endeavors. Apparently my stubbornness about not adopting the use of personal devices or cell phones is not just obstinacy for its own sake. My resistance is about my art. So let the daydreams continue.
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