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Instructor: Tony Filipovitch, 106e Morris Hall, xt. 5033,
388-2264 (home), TONY@VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.edu
Office Hours: M-R 10-12 & M 12-2 (or any other time
by appointment--see me first)
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitively commits oneself, the Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
Goethe
I am given to talking about dreams because dreaming separates us from other animals, other life forms. I have a favorite line from a play I read years ago, a Chaucerian drama. The line goes: "In dreams begin responsibility." And indeed it's true. When you dream of something, you can begin to take it upon yourself, make it yours, change it. But you have to dream it first. And (people) don't dream…. You have to think of the world as you would really have it. I don't mean wish it, I mean dream it. And sometimes I think (people) wish more than they dream.
Henry Hampton, in Been in the Storm so Long, ed. M. Reed & J. Janes (1991, Skinner House Books, Boston MA)
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