Dreams

“To sleep! Perhaps to dream.” Hamlet

Like many people I have been fascinated by dreams. Dreams have been analyzed, psychoanalyzed, studied, dissected, interpreted, symbolized, mythed, demythed, etc. since the first caveman turned to his mate and said “I had the strangest dream last night.” For the Australian aboriginal people the Dreamtime is part of their sacred beliefs. It was as a child living in New Mexico that I first saw a dream catcher among the craft works of the Navaho people. To this day I have a dream catcher by my bed. I believe that my fascination of dreams comes from that time in New Mexico where I was a young child. I know my mother and brothers found the weekend trips to the ruins from Native American civilizations boring but for Dad and I the history that we felt from being at a place where history existed was very palatable and real. I will never forget the awe I felt when we experienced the Anasazi cliff dwellings.

I have read the works of Jung. I have read Dr. Ann Faraday’s books on dreams. I have read about Native American beliefs and the beliefs of people from around the world. But in the end it always comes down to a personal realization that dreams are a unique part of us as individuals. I have lately been going through a period of intense dreaming. I notice that when I am ill and running a fever that dreams come more frequently and often times I wake up thinking that I really need a new script writer because my dreams make no sense. Familiar people run through my dreams in unfamiliar circumstances. In my dreams my Dad is often still alive.

I didn’t go to work today because I was running a fever and my throat is raw. I went back to bed and as I have for the last several nights started to dream. In the dream I was angry at a phone service to a new home where the technicians were totally indifferent to the fact that we needed the service set up. They didn’t care that I had a mother with a bad heart and I needed to be able to get help for her. In the dream I did something I would never do in real life I assaulted the technician and forced him to schedule the service we needed. As I was trying to get him to cooperate ambulance workers were taking my Mom out of the house because she had another attack. I woke from the dream highly disturbed.

It is easy to see that I am worried about my Mom. Even in my dreams I try to take care of her. The unaccustomed violence bothered me until I realized that in the real world I have been “fighting” for health care ever since the election. It is something that I passionately believe in. I think it is significant that we “fight” for our beliefs. While we may not resort to the violence that the word implies we “battle” for our beliefs and trying to get things done in a legal manner still takes a physical toll from us. I feel as drained by the constant attempts to push my representatives, to write and try and persuade other for the cause, the constant trying to convince the people I deal with on a day to day basis, as I would if I had entered the ring in a boxing contest.

If you don’t deal with the day to day stress the mind will find a way to force you to do so often in dreams. There are still battles ahead. This health care reform isn’t the final and complete answer. We still are looking at financial reform, immigration, DADT in the military, the environment, wars and conflicts in the world. We still have much left to do. I have so much I still want to accomplish. My main task is always as care giver to my Mom. I gave her a copy of my Easter picture and raved how fast the new machine she bought for me rendered the picture. A picture that size normally would take a couple of hours and it was done in seven minutes. The joy in her face over the sweet picture made me happy.

So as I continue to work in the political “battles” ahead I will try and remain as optimistic as I can. I will continue to share my art and photos with others because as I see in my Mom’s face when I share with her the art and photos can brighten the lives of others. I try to be encouraging in my writings because people need to know that what they do matter and the fight may be hard but we can win in we don’t give up.

I will listen the dreams when they are trying to tell me something and enjoy the ones that seem to be movies that entertain. And if my mind wants to continue to put David Tennant or John Barrowman in them either in “real” life or playing The Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness from “Doctor Who” I won’t mind one little bit.