A Perfect World

Have you heard of a tool called the Rainmaker’s Journal? It’s a secret journal to keep that’s filled with, not the life events that actually happened, but the way you would wish them to occur. The “future you” is the writer so you have to be imaginative. In this crazy world you have to be REALLY imaginative.

The idea flows along lines I have written before. From the philosopher James Allen, I learned and have lived the reality that we are very much the creators of our own worlds. On a grand scale, the “we” that is the collective “I” creates the world we share, but it all starts at home within the self. “As a man thinketh, so is he.” I love James Allen.

In a play/movie called The White Rose, college student and fervid Nazi resistor Sophie Scholl tells her captor that “We make the world, not the other way around.” Same idea.

So I have been investing less time of late in writing of events that occur, and letting my future self write of a complete world where, despite bad things happening, all is well. I was surprised to find myself writing less about myself, and more about the people I love.  When I wrote what I could about them for the time being, I turned to the subject of friends and acquaintances and what was going on with them from the futuristic perspective. Facebook and the grapevine offer daily prompts. Samples of this writing go something like:

“(Friend) and her husband and daughters have had such a good life. The girls are now beautiful young women. The remind me in so many ways of their unforgettable grandmother.”

“(One of my sons) has been involved for years in work he has wanted to do since he was a very young boy. I always admired his talent and now rest with the knowledge that he is able to earn a living doing what he has always loved to do.”

“Although (acquaintance) was diagnosed with (disease) long ago, she has fared extremely well and is still active and fit.”

A few words about writing like this. It’s isn’t fascinating to write or to read, and for that reason, it’s pretty easy to resist the task of writing in a little journal dedicated to one’s positive fantasies and nothing else. There are other downsides. A world where good always triumphs over evil is inherently off-center because of the inevitable air of unreality. Our characters and our authenticity depend upon our response -- what we think, say, and do --when we aren’t getting our way. It’s easy to be a saint and a know-it-all when all your current needs are met.

I continue to write in the journal because, in a fairly short period of time, I have seen the beginning of dreams coming true - or emerging as imminently possible - even in the face of bad news and lousy situations.  I really pay attention to others’ good reports, more than I ever have before.

Of course, I don’t think good news happens because I am dreaming it up on behalf of the people I have crossed paths with in this life. All I am doing in Future Me’s journal is opening up a window to the possible in a world full of cares that I will, we all will, eventually be living behind.

Looking around, I see that Present Me has two choices. I can join the cultural moshpit of helplessness, despair, and political and other types of rancor, or I can make the simple decision to represent something else. When I turn my attention to five minutes of writing in my secret journal, I consider myself an Acolyte of the Possible. Although I can’t sustain that position always, at least she exists for a few minutes a day.

Anyway, if unexpectedly good things come your way, even if things seem headed in the opposite direction, don’t be too surprised. Just accept it with gratitude.

 And if you somehow know me and are waiting for your turn, don’t get discouraged. Maybe the good news has already been written, to be revealed in time.