The "Window of Dreams" was the Lokirrim name for a pulsarcluster in the Delta Quadrant known for its electromagnetic fields, which would create beautiful harmonic sounds when they vibrate against the hull of a ship.
In 2377, Captain Ranek showed the Window of Dreams to The Doctor, inhabiting Seven of Nine's body, during a romantic situation. He noted that "you could travel from one end of thequadrant to the other and not see anything like it" and that it was "the most beautiful sight in the sector."
Romanticism... I am a romantic at heart. To truly win my heart takes an understanding of romanticism that goes beyond candlelight dinners and terms of endearment. I believe the deepest romance can be experienced without another human being. Namely, I am speaking of losing oneself in the abandonment of one's imagination, and finding a sort of freedom and adventure and solitude in something that is bigger than or outside of ourselves. It is romantic because it is idyllic and a flight of the fancy-- romanticism by definition exalts emotions, passion, imagination, adventure, freedom, nostalgia, and transcendence.
John Keats was one of the defining poets of the English Romantic movement. His odes are characterized by an A-B-A' pattern in which the speaker goes on a flight of the imagination (B) and returns to where he first started but with some realization or resignation (A').
Romantics long for that feeling resident at the height of the imagination's journey. To forever capture that moment, one would hope to stop time from passing while in that state... and to just be, to be conscious and aware and partaking of eternal pleasure. A scene from Star Trek Insurrection comes to mind, where Anji and Picard enjoy a moment where the rain slows down and time almost seems to stop. But inevitably, one must return from the fanciful flight.
I believe space is so conducive to dreams and romance because of its infinite and mysterious nature. I would love to be on a starship and be part of a crew that blazes into the vast yet final frontier, sharing the experience of new phenomena and encountering new races, learning more about each other, the universe, and ourselves in the process. There is something so romantic about trekking through the stars-- perhaps it is the unknown anomalies we shall face or the loyalty of defending the ship to her last or just the majestic beauty of infinitely many different worlds and regions of space. Of course the secrets of warp drive, the transporter, the holodeck, and the replicator add to the allurement of this universe.
Daydreams and romanticism also draw inspiration from creation itself as we experience it on Earth. Though it has since been tarnished by sin, there are still awe-inspiring places on Earth, from the quiet foothills wet with dew to gently babbling streams in deep forests, to rolling meadows and plains and unceasing oceans. For me, one of the most romantic things I could ever imagine is to lose myself in the beautiful and unurbanized pastures of the Irish or the English countryside. It has an ancient mysticism that invites the soul to be at one with the land and to just be...
Of course, having said all this, the ultimate romance is that offered in and through and by God. I spoke of those who are able to dream and long for something beyond ourselves as being capable of romanticism and that fanciful flight. Well, God has placed in each of us a holy discontent and a longing for what is eternal-- this then is the driving force behind all our ponderings that there is more to life than meaninglessness and despair, more than death and annhilism. God has instilled in us a desire that can only be satisfied in Him, and for those to whom this reality of God's kingdom come is ever present, the flight of the imagination, heart, mind and soul is fully realized in the presence and glory of God, which is the believer's ultimate joy and satisfaction. They who dream of seeing Jesus face to face and who find their treasure and significance in Him remember that they are in but earthly tents now and that their real dwelling place is to come.
This is the ultimate A-B-A' journey we can ever take (or more like A-B-A'-B-A''-B-A'''-C since we continually seek Him and are changed until finally we are transformed in full). We once were lost and in darkness, but God has given us light and salvation. He has opened the eyes of our heart to see and cling to His promises and His presence and reality through the same romantic avenues as those used in more secular dreams-- simple retreat and meditation into the spoken or written Word and music, for instance. There is a certain refuge and comfort and peace and freedom to be found in this flight of the soul that is the ultimate in romance, for it is there that God Himself meets with us and showers us with the ultimate in love and grace and hope and purpose. To commune with and abide in God provides that very pinnacle of dreams that we long for.
The soulful journey is a romantic one, but too often we fall into the mistake of failing to indulge in God's readily available romance. We are fleshly beings and hence are often drawn to the pleasures and romances of the senses rather than the spirit. But God promises that all the things we reap in our earthly enterprises compare not to the benefit we reap when we allow God to lead us in this dance called life. He desires to romance us in this way, for us to follow, for us not to suppress our desires but to glut them on Him, as John Piper would say. C.S. Lewis in Mere Chistianity puts it this way:
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.Let us not be so easily pleased by the pleasures of earthly treasures and earthly romanticism but let us pursue God in all earnestness and see how richly He blesses us and what adventures He will lead us through. As Piper exhorts us in his book, Don't Waste Your Life, let us not life a wasted life for our own short-sighted comfort and pleasure but let us strive for a life that treasures God above all of life's gifts and let us treasure God even above the gift of life itself. To live is Christ and to die is gain... (Philippians 1:21).
God is greater than everything that we've ever longed for and dreamed about. The eternal life in heaven that He promises us will be beyond the deepest pleasure and joy that we can imagine, and He gives us a glimpse and taste of it now in that the Holy Spirit already dwells in us. Thus the kingdom of God has already come in part but the fulfillment is yet to come. In many ways, this can be deemed as the most important "window of dreams" we will ever encounter. All our dreams are more than satisfied through God in heaven and He has given us a window to the fulfillment of that promise through His Holy Spirit today. The window is always open such that we can always see and experience the the beauty of God's kingdom, be reminded of its reality and allure, and be sustained and encouraged to push onward in our journey of faith.
