The Dreamseller_ The Calling - Augusto Cury [71]
He paused and seemed concerned when he warned us:
“We’re living in the third millennium. Selling the dream of being a human without borders in a society that has reached the pinnacle of selfishness seems like the absurdity of all absurdities. Being true, generous and considerate when others ask it of us already seems like going beyond extraordinary; just imagine how difficult it will be to teach others to be this way when no one asks it of them. You’ll be called fanatics, lunatics, proselytizers. But if they accepted me, they’ll also accept you.”
Other than that, he offered no rules about how to approach people or whom to look for: rich or poor, educated or illiterate, city dwellers or those in rural towns. He gave us no map, only the inspiration to continue the journey. His hair blew in the wind, and we were dripping sweat. We were all scared of what awaited us. I thought to myself, “This isn’t going to work. We’ll be misunderstood, maybe even reviled. And what if I run into one of my colleagues from the university? What will they say about me?” The dreamseller added:
“There are many ways to contribute to the good of humanity, but none of them is easy, and none of them come with applause. People will be suspicious of your motives. You may be famous in the morning, and infamous by nightfall. You may be heralded one moment and treated like the dregs of society the next. The consequences are unpredictable. But I guarantee you that if you overcome these obstacles, you’ll emerge much more human, much stronger, and able to understand what books can never teach you. You’ll understand, to some small degree, what millions of Jews experienced at the hands of the Nazis, Christians in the Coliseum, Muslims in Palestine . . . You’ll begin to understand the kind of oppression that homosexuals, blacks, prostitutes, the deeply religious and women have suffered throughout history.”
I thought to myself, “Letting Bartholomew and Dimas loose to represent the dreamseller without monitoring could be a disaster. It’s not that different from letting a medical student perform surgery without a supervisor.”
What the dreamseller was asking of us was to create a social laboratory unlike any I had studied in sociology. He didn’t want us to do charity work in Africa with financial backing, or give philanthropically to some institution, or to support a religion or a political party. He wanted us to return to our roots. We could take nothing with us, not even our prestige in society. We would have to be merely human beings connecting with other human beings.
He insisted that we had a right to choose.
“I encourage you to leave the cocoon at least this one time, but no one is obligated to do so. There are many risks, and the consequences are unforeseeable. The choice is yours, yours alone.”
The room shook with tension, but no one backed down from the dreamseller’s challenge, not even a pair of eighteen-year-olds near the front. Youth yearns for adventure, and they were ready to experience the journey.
Sending Forth the Disciples
WHEN THE MEETING WAS OVER, HE SENT US OFF FOR OUR two-day journey. Each took the person who’d been sitting on his right as his partner. He gave the women the option to sleep at home, but they all declined.
“We want the full experience. We choose to leave our cocoons for those two days,” Jurema said, speaking for the women. Four other people asked to be excused, though they promised to return on the appointed day.
Our results couldn’t have been more mixed. We were taken for thieves and kidnappers. We were rejected, ridiculed, threatened. Several pairs had to explain themselves at the police station. But in spite of everything, we had spectacular experiences. We enjoyed ourselves and learned so much. It seemed as if we were traveling in another society, that we had entered a completely different world, the world of “the other person.” Everyone said they felt totally insecure without money or credit cards. Sometimes we felt like a wandering people with no home,