Book by Octavia Butler
If you haven’t read it yet (even if you have), please go check out Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower from your local library - the audio book is well done. In this book, Butler shows us the incredible power of dreaming.
First published in 1993, Parable of the Sower is set in 2024-2027. I just finished a chapter set in October 2026. This book is set in California after an extreme economic collapse. When I first read it, it felt post-apocalyptic. Now, it feels relatable. It’s unnerving, but so powerful. Fair warning, it’s a bit dark at times. It describes a world that is harsh and unforgiving. But you follow a young girl who finds hope in that darkness and follows it. You watch as her dream evolves from a spark into something living and breathing.
The thing about a dream is that it’s never what we think it will be, but it gets us a hell of a lot closer than wherever we’d be without it. I see it as I do painting. I imagine the art I’ll make, but when my brush hits the canvas it becomes something else.
But here’s the thing: art and dreams both become more powerful when they’re shared. They become more real. They change. They adapt.
As Octavia Butler wrote wisely, over 30 years ago:
Saturday, October 31, 2026:
“All successful life is
Adaptable.
Opportunistic.
Tenacious.
Interconnected, and
Fecund.
Understand this.
Use it.
Shape God.”
(p. 124)
In Parable of the Sower, God is Change.
So I ask you, what do you want to shape this change?
What do you dream of for the future?
If we share our dreams, perhaps can shape them together.