The Dreamer in a Dream
Everyone has dreams. As reality presses us, and the world around us seems to try to crush us, when the weights of our lives begin to feel unbearable, we live for our dreams. We live for our hopes of a better future, of a fairer land, of beauty and justice, chivalry and love.
It isn't hard to dream, for dreaming is the way the human minds uses to cope with the cruelty of life and with the faults of our fellow humans. It paints the world is prettier colors, makes the hardships easier to deal with, bridges easier to cross. The ability to dream and hope are one of the human being's most important assets, for it scares the insanity of actual existence away from us, wrapped around beautiful images and new ideas.
We always wish for something better, something more special than what we already have. Our life is hardly ever enough while we think we can have more than that – more love, more honor, more money, more comfort. We struggle and try to follow our dreams because we must – because without them, we'd go nowhere. They are what feed our soul and mind, just as food and water nurture our body.
A man doesn't have to be special to try and achieve his dreams, but he has to be persistent if he wishes them to become real. Lancelot never wavered, he never faltered, he always knew his goal and never lost sight of it. He trained every day, until his muscles were sore, until his eye sight failed, because he knew where his path was supposed to take him: to Camelot and knighthood, to serve and protect people around him.
He never doubted himself capable of going to the end of this journey, even if he couldn't be sure he would be accepted among the ranks. He had been too eager and too naïve to imagine there might be needed more than skill and a good mind to become a knight of Camelot. And it was the same naiveté that had led him to break his ideals, go against his own code, and allow himself to take part in something he didn't deserve; not according to the laws or according to the code he swore to protect.
It isn't hard to pursuit your dream, what really takes courage is giving up on them – seeing them for what they truly are. It isn't hard to set your eyes to a goal and fight to achieve it, what is difficult is accepting that they might never come to pass. It isn't hard to kneel and swear, but to stand up and live up to those promises.
He could have stayed, and he knew, that after a while, the King and the Prince would come around each other, and somehow make his situation work. He could have stayed, because he had faced the griffin with courage, and even if he hadn't been solely responsible for his demise, he had taken part in it to the best of his abilities, not caring if it meant his death. But staying was easy, for it would be live a dream. The reality awaited for him, and the final test – the one that really matter – he would have to pass alone, and prove to himself that he was more than a dreamer, that he was more than a boy, but a man, and worth the honors that were bestowed on him even as he gave up on them.
And so he did.