Lesson from a Dream
Posted 02-02-2012 at 06:46 AM by LookinForMayberry
I haven't believed in the significance that many people seem to give their dreams. I don't dream the dreams I hear or read people describe: mini plays of people they know in plotted stories with logical endings.
My dreams tend to be fragmentary, set in places I've never been, and attended by people that I not only do not know but have never seen before or since.
So, yesterday morning when I woke from a dream with a sort of plot and found I'd learned something about myself from the dream, it disturbed me.
It was no big technicolor production, but I'd inherited a huge house from my mother that I'd never known she owned, and decided to throw a party and invite every one I knew, asking only that they bring food or beverages enough for themselves and a few others.
At first it was a nice little party and we reveled in my good fortune with food and drinks. It lasted into the night, so some stayed over because they were too tired or influenced to go home. I went to work the next morning and found when I got home the party had continued and grown. The passage of time wasn't logical, but it seemed like in the next instance the party had been going on for days, my house was full of strangers, and they were beginning to question who I was and what I was doing there if I wasn't going to party with them. Disgusted, I finally chased off as many as I could, and had the police remove the rest.
I woke as I turned to find my house in shambles, strewn with debris -- a major mess that I had to clean up all by myself.
As I lay looking at my dark ceiling, I realized that this was what so many conservative Americans were feeling about what they see as "their" country. They have a sense of ownership and expectations about how life in their country should be lived, and those they've viewed as newcomers are not only walking all over their expectations, but trashing up their country, too.
Suddenly, I "get it." I am not sure I approve of the intolerance, but my dream definitely proves that I have it, too.
The thing is that I have no idea whatsoever what to do about it. After all, most of the newcomers are not visitors but co-owners -- or even part of the American "family," either through birth or "marriage." Even the illegal aliens are "adopted" because they serve a need that we are unwilling to satisfy ourselves.
I'm not professing to have answers (for a change), but I do admit that I now understand better. I still think the answers come from working together, and that means political participation -- and that is something I have believed all along.
The thing is, it's just another solution that requires everyone come to the table and talk rationally about what they need to have in the solution. As long as we are still in our corners biting the others' backs and hurling insults across the room, we won't ever solve anything.
My dreams tend to be fragmentary, set in places I've never been, and attended by people that I not only do not know but have never seen before or since.
So, yesterday morning when I woke from a dream with a sort of plot and found I'd learned something about myself from the dream, it disturbed me.
It was no big technicolor production, but I'd inherited a huge house from my mother that I'd never known she owned, and decided to throw a party and invite every one I knew, asking only that they bring food or beverages enough for themselves and a few others.
At first it was a nice little party and we reveled in my good fortune with food and drinks. It lasted into the night, so some stayed over because they were too tired or influenced to go home. I went to work the next morning and found when I got home the party had continued and grown. The passage of time wasn't logical, but it seemed like in the next instance the party had been going on for days, my house was full of strangers, and they were beginning to question who I was and what I was doing there if I wasn't going to party with them. Disgusted, I finally chased off as many as I could, and had the police remove the rest.
I woke as I turned to find my house in shambles, strewn with debris -- a major mess that I had to clean up all by myself.
As I lay looking at my dark ceiling, I realized that this was what so many conservative Americans were feeling about what they see as "their" country. They have a sense of ownership and expectations about how life in their country should be lived, and those they've viewed as newcomers are not only walking all over their expectations, but trashing up their country, too.
Suddenly, I "get it." I am not sure I approve of the intolerance, but my dream definitely proves that I have it, too.
The thing is that I have no idea whatsoever what to do about it. After all, most of the newcomers are not visitors but co-owners -- or even part of the American "family," either through birth or "marriage." Even the illegal aliens are "adopted" because they serve a need that we are unwilling to satisfy ourselves.
I'm not professing to have answers (for a change), but I do admit that I now understand better. I still think the answers come from working together, and that means political participation -- and that is something I have believed all along.
The thing is, it's just another solution that requires everyone come to the table and talk rationally about what they need to have in the solution. As long as we are still in our corners biting the others' backs and hurling insults across the room, we won't ever solve anything.
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