On Dreaming (#8)

As I mentioned in an earlier post on dreaming, I keep a daily journal where I record such things as inspirations, revelations, and reflections. And since my dreams are constantly filled with these three things, I make every effort to record them. My last post on dreams had to do with beaches and my struggles with them. I must admit, before sitting down to write this post, I thought I was experiencing a drought of vivid dreaming, broken only by the three I experienced Thursday and Friday night of this past week. However, thanks to my journal entries, which I just now reviewed, my memory was easily refreshed. Over the past three weeks in question, I chronicled quite a few lucid dreams:

• One involving a messy litter box, and my attempt to clean it up (the dream occurred the night before I had to visit Walmart);
• Another had me setting up for an event, doing something wrong, and trying to lie about it to one of my peers (a debate about permanent and dry erase markers were somehow a part of it);
• In a barely remembered one, I found a child locked in an otherwise empty van, and I decided to break in free them (by driving around in circles in the parking lot);
• In a strange one, I went from cleaning a green pool with a former student, to feeling sorry for a group of young people running a concession stand alongside an empty field (apparently, my former mentor had required that they remain working, even though there were no costumers);
• Then there was the time Major Houlihan from MASH inspired me to march in a parade that ended up with me standing in a line outside a crowded pub (my party left me at the door, as they managed to find a place inside--I finally woke up just as I walked away disappointed);
• One night I dreamed I was in a car with someone who took a detour against my better judgement (we ended up driving through a crowded baseball field outside a school that was letting out for recess);
• Another night I dreamt of a conversation between my sister, my father, and me, about the film, The Godfather, and Edgar Allen Poe (the whole time we were outside in the pouring rain trying to get my sister into her car so she could drive home--I had an umbrella, which I used to keep my sister dry, but none from my father, who did not seem to mind);
• Finally, I experienced a dream where I found myself outside my friend's house at the end of a party, struggling to find a place to urinate. But, I was desperate to get it over with as quickly as possible, so I could spend some time with my friend, whom I was not able to hang out with at all that night (I ended up finding an extremely tight bathroom on the second floor, where I managed to start peeing, only to discover, halfway through, that the toilet was filled with children's toys--yeah, I'll spare you the details. After I cleaned up the mess, I went downstairs, and found my friend. Excited that I still had time, I began to speak. Suddenly the dream ended, and I woke up.)   

That last one had me feeling quite disappointed. But I could be reading too much into it. After all, that night I did end up having to get out of bed and use the bathroom. There may have been something else to that dream!

Anyway, now that I am aware that I have not experienced a draught these past two week, I can share my last three dreams. However, this review has not been in vain. It has given me some context in which to evaluate these past three dreams. Trust me, there is plenty to think about.

The two on Thursday night were so vivid, upon waking up, I picked up my phone and began creating an outline of the details. The one on Friday night finished up just as my alarm was about to go off. So that one was easy to record. In any event, I am glad I took the time to type them up, because sharing them here has been quite illuminating, and also puzzling.

The first dream had me as a new teacher walking down a huge open hallway, with tables running down the middle. Students were sitting at those tables. When I arrived at the last table, I decided to engage the students, but I did so by trying "to act cool". That appeared to amuse the students. Their facial expressions seem to indicated that they were interested in what I have to say. So I continued to talk (I am unable to remember the substance of my conversation with them). Well, the second round did not go so well. Their demeanor changed. They seemed to be put off with what I had said. Although it did not come across as hostile (maybe it was pity, or perhaps disinterest), it made me feel awkward. So, I moved away from the table, out of the open hallway, into a narrower one. 

There, in the new hallway, I run into the character, Vice Principal Nero, from the Netflix show, A Series of Unfortunate Events. However in my dream, he was just a fellow teacher, but one who had been at the school for some time. While trying to talk to him, I noticed that he kept looking at my hat (it is very similar to the real black dance studio hat that I have been wearing for several years now, but in the dream, in place of the studio logo, are the letters "PLA", an abbreviation for the school where I used to teach). He interrupts me, and begins to talk about the hat, ignoring me in the process. I get annoyed. The assistant principal arrives. He resembles the character Al Borland from the series Home Improvement. And I am convinced he will help me out by listening to me. Unfortunately, he immediately takes an interest in my hat. Nero and Al go back and forth, discussing the hat, and ignoring me. 

Discouraged, and unwilling to cause trouble, I toss them the hat. They take to it like children discovering an exciting birthday present. I walk away. The dream fades.

It then transitions into another one, different in tone from the first, but, I now think, directly connected to it. In the second dream, I am lying down on my side on a long cushioned bench, like the comfortable ones you find on a patio near a pool. There is a blanket covering my entire body, including my head. My head is resting on the lap of a woman. She is petting me, behind my ear, much like a parent would a sick or upset child. At first it feels awkward. But soon I get used to it, and I find it soothing. However, the blanket partially falls away, and I am exposed (for the record, I do not feel like I am naked), along with what the woman is doing (which does not feel sexual in any way, just comforting). Apparently, there are other women sitting on the bench, and they become jealous (of what, I do not exactly know). A group of young girls are standing off to the side. They are offended. One of them, who happens to be the daughter of the first woman, speaks up, and says something (in the dream it is not clear). The woman stops petting me and laughs at her daughter. I lift my head, give some sort of lecture about something, then lay my head back on the woman's thigh. Oh, I also pull the blanket over me, completely covering me. That is when the woman continues to pet me, making me feel safe and comfortable. Just as I begin to wake from this dream, I realize something: the whole time I was in fact an actual puppy dog.

Unfortunately, the next night's dream did not end so pleasantly. It begins with me floating above a world much like Minecraft: blocks of terrain and building material, populated with humans. There was plenty of green spaces, but also fantastical palace like structures. I found myself flying among the scenery, traveling from one place to another. At first, everything seemed serene, and I was enjoying the sights. However, soon I felt something at the edges of my dream space. A foreboding mist. It began eating away at the world, turning the horizons into dark shadows. I felt like it was corralling us humans into one place. Things felt tighter. The sky grew darker. Even the building became colder, turning from fanciful white stone work, to gray concrete bunkers.  Finally, we ended up inside one of the bunkers, a spacious one. And there we huddled together.

But something kept warning me that we were not safe. We had to leave. So, I began shouting to the crowd, pointing in a direction, telling them that they have to leave immediately. To my surprise, they followed my instructions, and began piling out of the bunker, into what seemed like an eerie nightmarish world. From there, they headed in the direction I pointed. When the last had fled the bunker, I stepped outside, onto a dimly lit street. Across the way was another building. I entered it. It was much smaller and tighter than the bunker. And it housed items and a toolbox. Into the toolbox I began piling the items. The process was slow and laborious. It took effort to find each thing, and even more to place it in the toolbox. And I grew anxious. So much so, that I decided I had to act, and look after the people I sent away.

I left the building (and apparently the toolbox), stepped outside, and found myself in a different place. The space was still dimly lit, but now I stood atop a tall wall, overlooking a pitch black landscape, barely discernable from the dark sky above. In the far distance ran a visible horizon line. At one point along that line, there was a bright red explosion. It revealed a sky filled with billowing gray clouds, and a factory of some sort, iconic in design, like you would find in a board game. The factory was lit momentarily. It seemed to be engulfed in flames and growing smoke plumes. There was a great calamity forming out there in that direction. The flash soon faded, and the landscape reverted back to complete darkness as I stood alone on that wall surrounded by a dimming light. 

As the dream drew to a close, it was not lost on me that I had sent those people in the direction of that factory, and whatever doom was taking place there.

Nor was it lost on me that it would have been nice to have awoken from the puppy dream at this point, rather than the night before. 

But such are the nature of my dreams. 

(Now, for what they all mean...)