Over the last few years, I’ve made several trips down the Mississippi River, but I’ve yet to successfully photograph the headwaters at Itasca State Park. After one failed attempt, I went to the Blue Ox Bar in Brainerd, Minnesota. A heavy metal cover band was playing. A rowdy table in back invited me over. A man at my table was deaf and had never learned to read lips. We communicated by writing on napkins. On one napkin, I asked what his dream was. He wrote: My dream is to find someone who could love me so much!

I decided that during my travels, I would ask whoever I photographed to answer that same question. In La Crosse, Wisconsin, I visited the Chapel of Perpetual Adoration. Since August 1, 1878, at least two nuns have been praying in the chapel, day and night, without interruption. As one nun finished her shift, I asked my question. She wrote: My dream is to be as consciously aware as possible of God’s presence in my daily life.

Rarely were the replies that lofty and decisive. A convict in Kentucky punctuated his simple dream with question marks: My dream is to be in a Hot Rod magazine???

Many people asked me to describe my own dream. I’ve never settled on a single answer. I want to be aware of God’s presence and be in a Hot Rod magazine. My pictures have something to do with all this dreaming.