Dream-Weavers

I’ve enjoyed creating Christmas gifts for years, ranging from holiday goodies to ceramic Christmas trees. In my ceramic period, one year I cleaned, fired, and glazed tiny sheep, shepherds, and Magi to provide a nativity set for each home in our family circle. Fortunately, those days are over – way too much pressure to finish in time for the trip to the Empire State.

Saying farewell to the clay dust on my fingers, I turned to a more manageable task, composing a new Christmas carol or writing some kind of prose project each year. The last four years, I’ve created a book of daily devotional readings for the month of December, and I just completed this year’s offering, Faces of Advent for Christ-Seekers. As I studied those with a role in the nativity narrative, the dreams woven through this ancient story caught my attention, especially the dreams of Joseph. His dream of annunciation is a familiar one, as is the warning to escape to Egypt, but his third dream seemed to be a dream of possibility for the future in the family’s return to Israel.

This third type of dream, of possibilities even in the midst of daunting circumstances, is the theme for this year’s United Way campaign here in Ashland County. With a mission “to improve lives and serve as the leader for change in Ashland County by uniting the caring power of our community,” that mission is coming true, day in and day out, as its leaders and supporters dream of what the future can be for our neighbors who struggle to dream for themselves.

As a child, I stationed myself in front of the television at 4:30 p.m. to watch Queen for a Day, which one reviewer called “one of the most ghastly shows ever produced.” Ghastly or not, I was intrigued by the stories of the contestants, who spoke of the need for medical care or equipment to help a chronically ill child, or of the hope for a hearing aid, a new washing machine, or a refrigerator. After the women told their stories of woe, the audience voted on who deserved to be queen for a day. The winner was crowned, draped in a red velvet robe, and then received her dream gift along with a new wardrobe, a vacation trip, or a brand new set of pots and pans.

I tried to think up a sob story to get my mother on the show, but we didn’t have the dramatic story line to catch the attention of the producers. My dad was able to get work most of the time, we were generally healthy, and we were not struck by the catastrophic occurrences that marked the lives of the Queen for a Day contestants. Our story is not every family’s story. I know many families, even right here in Ashland County, whose world is one of nightmare, not dreams. A dearly loved child has a chronic illness that taps their resources and their capacity to hope, their fantasy marriage turned abusive and ended in a messy divorce, or an adult child, trapped in addiction, abandoned their children on the grandparent’s doorstep, breaking their hearts one more time.

I’ve been in the social service field a long time, and I know that United Way and its partner agencies can’t play Queen for a Day; they’re not always able to make dreams come true. But services funded every day by United Way dollars can put healthy food on the table, provide a hopeful start for our little ones, and intervene when a home collapses, literally or figuratively, easing the sting of the nightmares of life.

The dream-weavers and dream-catchers of United Way strive to reduce barriers so that families stressed by tough situations can dream again, taking baby steps towards health and wholeness. I don’t think John Lennon ever visited Ashland, but he bore witness to the reality of this community when he sang, “you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” When we support United Way, we become dream-weavers, standing shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors and claiming Gary Wright’s words: “I believe we can reach the morning light.”