Another monologue post today, this one from Gladiator. Early in the movie, Caesar (played by the late great Richard Harris) shares with the audience the following thought:

I am dying, Maximus. And when a man sees his end, he wants to know that there was some purpose to his life. How will the world speak my name in the years to come? The philosopher? The warrior? The tyrant? Or will I be the Emperor who gave Rome back her true self? You see — there was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish. And I fear it will not survive the winter. Let us whisper together, Maximus. You and I.

So in the movie, he’s talking about making Rome a more democratic nation, one where the true power of the country came not from the Emperor, but from the people and their representatives in the Senate.

OK … so what’s that got to do with anything on this Thursday?

Lately, I’ve been thinking of a lot of things in my life, from work to family, to music, to Jaycees, to everything. And it seems that I will come up with great ideas and novel thoughts and as soon as I start to voice them, they disappear because I’ve spoken in more than a whisper. Perhaps that’s a sign that I’ve stretched myself too thin and am thinking about way too many things. I don’t know.

What I do know is this – our dreams. Your dreams. My dreams. These are things that we must take great care with if we wish to see them come true. We can not force them, or say them in more than a whisper because we could be responsible for making them vanish.

So here’s to dreams. Here’s to dreams that we care deeply for. And here’s to making sure they don’t vanish.