It is next to impossible to keep a dream "down". Look out, people, if you do this...it WILL explode, at perhaps, the most inconvenient time.

Interesting question!

I voted on sags like a heavy load, HOWEVER after thinking about it realized that if we don't get the dream it eventually loses its power and most likely whithers or dries up like a raisin in the sun.

I wanted children and am now too old. THat' dream's whithered and blown away. However, for many years it sagged like a heavy load. The answer will probably depend on where we are in the dream releasing process...

I am not dispariging your present state, but am writing to give you hope. I have a 59 year old friend who has recently adopted a child...his lifetime dream. He is so happy, fulfilled and completely feels that he has done the correct action. He has also made certain (due to his age,) that the child's future in terms of spiritual, emotional, intellectual and financial needs are well cared for. So, all is not lost, eh?

... but if it is stifled, muffled or repressed it does not disappear. It is still there and will manifest its existence in many ways until either the wieght of the disfulfillment sinks the intended spirit or it festers and oozes into all of life's experiences, either consiously or unconciously making its lack known, even to others.
"Follow your Bliss" - Campbell

Agree totally that a dream stifled, muffled or repressed does not disappear. The dream "will out" and, yes, if lacking, will make it's lack known, even to others. I am not intending to be an irreverent person, but who makes ALL of their dreams come true? We need to discern which of our dreams are the most important, which of our dreams are do-able (given our life circumstances,) and which of our dreams mean so much to us that we will sacrifice EVERYTHING to make them happen. In a very personal note, I gave up one important dream in order to fulfill another one. Sometimes, we really cannot do it all. I have never been sorry. Do I have a missing point in my life? Most likely. I can live with that. I do know that the dream that I "gave up" is being fulfilled in a very small, if, different manner than I first intended. It is still there...dreams, which are one part of who we NEED to BE will always "be outed". Perhaps, just not as we imagined...just a thought. As an aside, my name is Maryanne.

I have had many dreams, and some came true. And now, right now, I'm making another dream come true, event though I've entered the second half of my Jewish life. (In other words, I just turned sixty.)
So - Keep at it!

Good for you, you beautiful Jewish man (not that it matters,) that you are making your dreams come true. And good, for the "artist" who is now expressing her/his art. I am 65+, and started this discussion because I know that our dreams are so important and never die and that they always remain with us for our entire lives. Dream on, dreamers, dream on. You are our saviours. We are our saviours. We will now make our present and our future beautiful and possibly forgive our past's when we feel that we have made the right or the wrong choices.Forgive, forgive, forgive. Forgive yourselves...all of you. We did the right thing, because we did it. Trust. Love. Be. We did the right thing.
Or...we would have done something else. Now, we can do anything. What will it be?

Some will sink while while others are blow away, some will rot, as others explode to the surface.

Umm...

You guys don't read much of Langston's poetry do ya?

langston hughes from "harlem" wonders what happens to dreams that do not come true.harold s.kushner from his book overcoming life's disappointments wonders what happens to the dreamer...."how do people cope with the realization that important dimensions of their lives will not turn out as the hoped they would?"