We need dreamers, maybe now more than ever.

I’m lucky to know some of those folks, the ones who dare to dream, who dare to live life in ways others only imagine.

My friend, Sean, fits that description. He is one of the bravest people I know; he will fervently deny it. He’s modest like that.

The boy who grew up in Opp started young dreaming of living in New York City. Several of us joked about someday being together in the Big Apple. Sean is the only one who made it happen.

Over the years, I’ve watched him sail into experiences not knowing how or if things would work out. He was an interior designer who, after a downturn in the decorating business, started his own tour-guide company. I know several people who toured NYC with him as their guide and they say it was an amazing experience.

Oh, but he had other dreams too, other experiences that called. One of those is acting. He is also great writer, can make you laugh and cry with his words.

He combined his writing with his acting ability and jumped into standup comedy. Did I mention that he is funny, really funny? I’ve watched a couple of his standup performances and I had tears in my eyes from laughing.

Just over a year ago, he set out on yet another adventure with a band of like-minded dreamers. This group, led by Jeanette Bonner, is daring to create a comedy series that plays only on the internet.

“Ghost Light” looks at what goes on backstage in a community theater.

Here is a teaser:

“Ghost Light” rips the blinders off what goes on behind the curtain-and-bright-lights of community theater. It’s is an insider’s look at the crazy people that make theater happen in your hometown theater. If you thought actors were weird…don’t look backstage.

Sean plays the prop master and, for me, is the highlight when he shows up in a scene. He is kind of shy about the part he plays so I’m not going say much. You have to check it out online to get a taste of his talent.

The series, an official selection at the 2014 Miami Web Fest, had it’s first season last year and hopes to live to see another one this year. Those of us who watched it sure hope it returns and keeps returning.

To make that happen, the ones creating this “masterpiece” turned to “Seed & Spark” to raise money for the project — everything takes money folks. It is an interesting idea to create something funded by support from the public. Makes us feel a bit of ownership with the finished product, I think.

So what does this have to do with dreamers and the world’s need for more of them? Well, it’s the dreamers, like my friend Sean and like Jeanette Bonner, those who dare to live their dreams, who give us hope. We hear and read and see so much about hopeless people who choose to live out their hopelessness, and often their anger, by producing violence and tragedy. Their misplaced dreams become the world’s nightmares.

It is so easy to focus on those stories, the ones that make us sad and make us wonder how we change a world so filled with separation.

That’s why we need the dreamers.

We need them to remind us we change the world by daring to dream big, daring to be bold. Maybe our boldness and daring won’t show up in the form of taking on life in New York City or creating a web series, but it can show up in ways that impact the world we inhabit every day.

So, I say, thank you for the dreamers. We need you, and we all need to join your ranks.

Oh, and if you would like to help the merry group of dreamers creating “Ghost Light,” visit http://www.seedandspark.com/studio/ghost-light and give them a few bucks.

 

 

Nancy Blackmon is a writer and a yoga teacher.