Empire of Dreams 

By Pat Eaton

Los Angeles is a place for dreamers. No matter where they come from, they come here to make their dreams come true, to build their own castle in the Empire of Dreams.  

For most, their singular passion is not enough. For others, they recreate their passions over and over again, building kingdoms of expression that succeed by persistence as much as might. Their art is a never-ending pursuit that manifests itself across nearly every medium, even those not typically appreciated as the creative endeavors that they are.  For them, everything is art and so everything they do is an expression of their creative drive.   

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Satisfied is a state of being not many in L.A. have an opportunity to enjoy. Those with kingdoms within the Empire seem like the only ones able to sit and gaze upon their creations with satisfaction.    

At only 26, Pat Eaton was beginning to doubt that he could build a castle, much less a kingdom. He would be resigned, instead, to occupying a corner, hoping to satisfy his artistic desires by hawking the works of others.  

Those others being the same satisfied, real creators, real artists, who maintained their child-like awe of the world around them and reproduced it in their own beautiful way. That awe was ever-present growing up, but Pat was increasingly becoming more certain he left it behind when he moved from his small hometown in search of more inspiration. Perhaps, really just seeking access. Or, maybe, just looking for an escape. 

Nonetheless, there wasn’t much Pat did not accomplish. But what if he could not accomplish this? Really, his only dream.  

Clouded with doubt, his mind still would not let him explore the answer to this question until he had exhausted every effort to defy the seemingly inevitable course toward failure.    

For now, however, Pat would resign himself to operating his corner of the empire as he continues to press forward toward achieving his dream. More accurately, Pat works as a law clerk in the Law Offices of Silver Heller & Edison, LLP, a boutique intellectual property law firm that represented some of the biggest names in entertainment and writing, the latter being Pat’s passion. The bread and butter of the firm was, of course, however, securing and prosecuting patents for new technology.  

Wide-eyed to the irony that the attorneys at Silver helped protect the ideas of those who could design the artificial intelligence that would make lawyers obsolete, Pat continued his work as a means of immediate survival and a last-ditch effort to build something meaningful within the Empire of Dreams.