by Stephen Martin

What are dream machines? What is it the Dream Machine festival is celebrating?

Dream machines are the inventions of some very creative people who hope to improve mankind by their creations — the dreamers who see a different way of doing something. They are the artists and the creators who make our world a better place.

Henry Ford was such a dream maker, and his dreaming and creativity created the mass-produced automobile. This made the car accessible to many people.

The Wright Brothers were dreamers. They began human flight. How they dreamed that up is fascinating. They obviously stood on the shoulders of many people who dreamed of flying one day.

But not all dreams are physical creations, like automobiles or airplanes. Ideas and concepts can also be dreams. Martin Luther King gave his most famous speech with the line “I have a dream.” And what a dream he created.

All dreams have to confront the status quo. These dreamers have to see new possibilities and new ways of being. They have to fight the status quo.

Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi were perhaps the greatest dreamers of the last century. Their dreams changed the United States, South Africa and India forever. But before the change occurred, much trouble was afoot. Mandela spent over 20 years in jail; King and Gandhi were assassinated. No major change occurs without corresponding trauma. It is fascinating that the dreamers who attempt to change the world are often assassinated. John Lennon, John and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Gandhi — the list is long.

We are currently in the midst of a world-altering experience. We have watched the near collapse of capitalism. We have seen the end of communism. Socialism has bankrupted the nations that have tried it. Something is happening in the world and while no one can clearly identify it, everyone knows it is revolutionary. Some new “ism” is happening to us. And the dreamers will lead the way out of this mess into a better tomorrow.

In the famous play Man of La Mancha, Don Quixote asks what madness is. His answer is revealing. “Who knows where madness lies. Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness! But maddest of all — to see life as it is and not as it should be.” This is the best description of a true dreamer I can image.

Dreamers invent lovely machines, and dreamers change the world. Thank God for dreamers. We all benefit from their creative minds, whether their dreams are social change or machines to improve life.

Stephen Martin is a marriage and family therapist with offices in Moss Beach. He has served as president of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the largest association of marriage therapists in the world. You can read more of Martin’s work at www.healmarriage.com; reach him at 650-726-1212 or by e-mail at stephen@healmarriage.com.