I Have a Dream

 

I Have a Dream

Now before I get into my dream, sincere apologies to Martin Luther King Jr. for stealing his famous speech title.  In fairness others are allowed to have dreams.  My God, musicians have been singing about this for decades.  Dream On, Dreamer, Dream a Little Dream of Me and Don’t Dream it’s Over are just a few songs advocating the importance of dreaming.  My dream steals a certain line from the civil rights icon towards the end of his speech “All of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics.”

My focus is on the religious part of the iconic speech.

I was raised a Roman Catholic and went to a Catholic school every weekday and a Catholic church every Sunday. All I knew about religion in my early days is that Protestants went to a different school and many different churches. Often the Protestant children would wait for the Catholic children to get out of school, and fights in the park would occur regularly.  I don’t’ think any of us knew why we were fighting, except for the very good reason that we were different.

As my schooling continued I learned about World War I, where in Yugoslavia Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. It would be later in high school where I would observe Serbians and Croations still fighting that war.  When history class got to World War II, I learned about a new religion, as the atrocities to the Jewish faith were delivered by a baptized Catholic named Adolph Hitler.

My dream is quite simple, though like all dreams, might be a little more complicated than originally thought.  To help with the phantasmagoria of the dream state, I will add timelines to help elevate the stability of the random images. A man is allowed to dream

My Dream:  World Religions will get together and solve their problems.

September 11, 2020.

I chose this date as it was another important educational moment for many, as we learned about the Islam faith and extremist actions.

All heads of all major faiths will meet in a boardroom at the Holiday Inn in Barrie Ontario.  Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Daoism, Taoism, Hinduism, Catholics, Buddhists, Sikhism, Atheism, Agnostics and let’s have the Rastafarians, to ensure great parties at night.  The group will be known as the Deity Dozen.

Agenda:

Principle 1

Come to agreement that Faith can be a good thing.

This discussion will go on for weeks. Eventually Atheists will agree that no Faith is their Faith in a moment of irony, and other religions will support that Faith is a good thing.  It will surprise all members that it took so long to agree on a principle that they have been preaching for centuries.

December 5, 2020

Location will be changed to the Holiday Inn located in Melbourne Australia, so the weather will support the Scramble Golf tournament planned for the afternoon.

Agenda Item

Principle 2

Come to Agreement that the principle of “Do to others as you would have done to you” is buried somewhere in every book, scripture, Sacred Scroll or any other document that serves their religion.

Religious heads will argue the wordage of this phrase in their sacred tomes, and of course like every meeting “the” will replace “a” as proper phrasing to align to principle 2.  A motivational speaker from Disneyland, will try to inspire the group to invest in their streaming channel, and Mickey Mouse T-shirts will be raffled off at the end of the talk.

Buddhists \ Daoism \ Hindus \ and Judaism, will win the scramble with a minus 12 score.  The head of the Hindu religion will imply cheating, but after much discussion and meditation, the winning team will receive the prize of four Coffee makers.

After two and a half years of debate, exhaustion will allow all religious heads to finally submit to the idea, that all religions do advocate being nice to one and other.

March 17, 2024

Location will be moved to The Holiday Inn in Rio De Janeiro to support the Beach Volley ball Tournament planned for the afternoon.

Agenda Item

Principle 3

God has a beard.  My God is taller than your God. but In the end Every God is the same God.

This will be the most controversial principle, as the Deity Dozen will scream, stamp their feet, and throw lemon wedges, meant for their ice water at the table.  In a team building exercise every religious head will draw a picture of what they believe their God looks like.  The Sharpie drawings will be transferred to the computer where all artists renditions will be merged.  In the end God will look like a Picasso painting with a child born from Nicolas Cage and Oprah Winfrey.

The beach volleyball tournament will be cancelled as each head of religion never agree on the weight and air pressure of the official ball to be used in the tournament.  Thankfully they will avoid the ”Deflategate” controversy of the early 21^stcentury.

October 4, 2028

The meeting will be transferred to the Holiday Inn In Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Agenda Item

Principle 4

Every religion will agree to remove that little small print item!

Alcohol will be served throughout this meeting as it will be agreed that sobriety will not allow alliance to the final item.  The small print simply states “ Honour all religions… but be one of us!”  The argument of “Be one of us” will be contentious. The Deity Dozen will even try to convince other religious heads to join their “better religion”.  Lemon wedges will be replaced with lime wedges for the ice water, as it will be discovered that being hit with a lime wedge is less bruising then the heavier yellow citrus fruit.  To help move this argument along, the group will be forced to watch every episode of the original Star Trek.  (Except The Trouble with Tribbles episode)  Early agreement will occur that William Shatner really over acts.  The Spock character will rise as a model of Logic and compassion.  Years will pass as the meeting comes to a twelve person deadlock.  The hotel staff will gently point out that the Scientologists will be arriving in two days for their annual “Tom Cruise Appreciation Meeting”. This disturbing news forces a decision. Some girl named Ethel, who has been the note taker throughout the meetings is asked to read the final minutes and decisions.

1. Faith can be a good thing
2. Being kind to others is a pretty good thing
3. God is not as attractive as we thought, but we all serve him, her, it.
4. You do not have to be ‘one of us; to support your faith.
5. All religions support all religions and choice is temporary.

Ethel added “temporary” as she felt every so often a Catholic might want to join the Buddhists because they seem to consistently win the afternoon golf tournaments.  The Deity Dozen rush to the lobby to get an airport taxi, before rush hour.

Meeting adjourned and World Peace occurs seventeen minutes later.

I am not married to using The Holiday Inn as the only location in spite of the obvious discounts that will occur with multiple hotel chain meetings.  If the Pope, or any other religious head is reading this, I am open to your recommendations.  I understand the Motel 6, has a superb continental breakfast.

This meeting will reoccur in 25 years, where more than 50% of religious leaders are now female. They will solve the new issues in less than 30 minutes.

So yes I have a dream. It is a hazy shade of reality, however all ideas start somewhere.  Or as the Everly Brothers reminded us, “All I have to do is Dream” before the real action occurs.

Cue the Blong; All I Have to do is dream… If the Ford Brothers were the Everly Brothers