I’m usually going somewhere, and I’m pretty determined about it, but inevitably I get lost. Most times, I’m in Cincinnati, in the hills above the Ohio River. There are highways, buildings and bridges that cross the river. I’m usually on foot, and as if I suddenly had a stroke, I find myself lost. Which way to go? Don’t know. I’m not sure I even know where it is I am going.
The other night I dreamed that friend Eric was about to commit suicide, but not if I could reach him in time. He left white notes with numbers attached to various objects like street signs, fences, etc., and all I had to do was follow those notes. Behind me were other friends of Eric; I think Dan, Adam and Mark Schreiber. I was leading the group, following the notes, when suddenly I’m in a mall; a series of stores not unlike the street mall Peter took us to in Honolulu. When I emerge, I’m back in the twilight trying to follow Eric’s trail. The guys are again behind me, but suddenly they turn left when they should have gone straight and that’s the last I see of them. And it’s the last I see of Eric’s notes.
Within the same three week period:
I’m hiking into the mountains. Mountains not unlike Yosemite Valley. I’m looking for a place to camp, a place to bring Matt back to, but I get lost.
I’ve climbed to the top of Mt Monadnock but now the summit is covered in round snow-covered boulders, and I don’t have any shoes on. I can’t get down.
I’m driving a truck a friend of mine stole and I find myself back at the owner’s house, as he is about to come out of the door. I want to run, but it feels like it’s too late.
I’m driving a flat bed truck full of junk that has to be tossed before I get onto the highway. I’ve stopped just beyond the dumpster, but the traffic is too heavy and the truck too long to back up. Should I attempt to back up or risk losing the load on the highway? I can’t decide.
Helen
Interesting, Mike, I’ve had lots of “lost dreams”. For years,I would be lost in downtown Pittsburgh near a train station. I think that had to do with being lost in the past, perhaps, not being able to find a clear direction for life in the present. The train is a way of moving, etc. HO
map reader
Like I said, only Mike would single out (from envy?) an adventure passage on sleeping soundly…..
Easy enough to free-wheelingly analyze and to attribute meaning — your care for your son’s growth into wisdom; for Diane’s choice of a life with you; wondering why you’re where you are now, did you make the right choices, fear you may not have, blah blah. But as to the ability (need?) to wear one’s dreams on one’s sleeve in this way…….. harder to divine (not that I avow any accuracy to the above — just saying one’s easier to blabber on about than the other).
whereami
Poor you, so lost. I don’t like these kind of dreams. You need to find a way to not remember your dreams. Perhaps a stiff drink before bed will make them go away. I recommend a margeurita from La Cantina.
rakkity
For a guy that can’t sleep, Mike, You have a lot of dreams. Now, I have no trouble sleeping, (which Beth is insanely envious of), and I can’t recall having had a dream for months. Beth, who like you, has difficulty sleeping, is always telling me over breakfast about the dreams she had.
Have you heard about that woman who had a stroke, and after recovery found that she never dreams. Even when the brain docs see her
eyelids moving (“REM”) and they wake her up, she says she wasn’t dreaming. Something about the occipital lobe.
You must be an occipital-lobe kind of guy.