I sometimes stare at people in disbelief when they ask me how I come up with my ideas. I want to ask how they don’t have ideas. A veritable barrage of them plague me — so many, in fact, that I’d need several lifetimes to pursue them all. After much pondering, I’ve concluded that the world contains two types of people — those who dream and those who don’t. You may have already guessed I fall into the more-rational category. Some of my best ideas come from daydreams. But there are hazards.

Daydreaming can breathe new life into my ideas or tie them up in impracticalities.

Dreams can make me prone to rush in where angels fear to tread.

Because dreams don’t regard normal constraints, they can alarm others. My husband leans toward the conservative in everything he does. When I chatter away about the future, well, he sometimes says I “alarm him.” For the sake of marital harmony, I’ve learned to let him know I’m “only” dreaming.

Note to Self: Count the costs of dreams before I commit to them.