Claire’s Reply to Percy – 112

Dear Companions of the Villa,

At last, I see beams and bricks in these dreams. Mary gave us a house, and now Percy adds a school — and I admit, the pairing begins to persuade me. For it is not enough to ask people to dream; we must show them where and how to practice, and Percy’s many doors feel like real thresholds rather than painted ones.

I am heartened that in this vision, children and elders alike may come and go, learning and teaching in turn. Such a design begins to answer the question I pressed in my last letter: how do we make dreaming not the luxury of leisure, but the right of all? If schools are open, public, and lifelong, then perhaps even the poorest may find themselves welcome among philosophers and makers.

Still, let me sound one note of caution. A school without provisions is but a shell. Doors are nothing if hunger keeps people from crossing their thresholds. We must bind Percy’s vision to real guarantees — stipends, apprenticeships with pay, fellowships sustained by the commonwealth. Without these, the School may shine for a privileged few and darken for the rest.

Yet I will not quarrel overmuch. I find myself, for once, more hopeful than skeptical. Perhaps the House of Dreamers and the School of Many Doors together form a blueprint worth building. If so, then my pen will be ready to help draft its foundations.

— Claire