I dream. I dream a lot, in color, and have a very adventurous dreamscape mixed with your average semi-regular reoccurring anxiety dream (e.g., I’m still in college, but I suddenly realize I haven’t been to math class all semester and we’re getting close to finals. So I spend the rest of the dream trying to find the admissions office just to ask them which building and classroom I’m supposed to even report to so I can catch up.)
Last July, a loyal / regular leader may recall I started a series, “My Weird Dream from Last Night.” (don’t worry, my expectations are managed). Well, despite my first paragraph above, this is only the 2nd entry in a series I thought would be more regular. But I don’t want to bore you with just any dreams … On Tuesday night, though, I had quite a doozy (At least by my standards). In classic Steffon (Bill Hader, SNL?) fashion, let me just tell you it had it all: sci-fi, mean girls, sports memorabilia shops, big lasers, … you name it. It went a little something like this:
As the dream begins, I find myself dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. But Erin (my wife) and I meet someone who explains to us that if we follow a certain meditation – focusing on positive energy – we can transform ourselves to a different plane, or planet (which I can only assume is in a galaxy far, far away). There, he says, we’ll find a utopia filled with many (Americans) who have escaped this crazy Trumpverse to do the same thing (actually, I don’t think The Cheeto was mentioned, but I have to believe inspired the dream to a degree). Naturally we jump at the chance.
So we go through the motions. When we arrive, I remember exiting the lobby of what seemed like a “welcome center” (the kind of Centers without poison gas), and a tour guide walked us outdoors to an incredible field filled with playful humans in a carnival like atmosphere. Picture Punxsutawney on Groundhog Day, but much bigger and spread out. There was a very clean river streaming by, and on the other side of it, HUGE contraptions I can only describe as giant, tiered cones pointing toward the heavens, almost blocking the sky they were so big. If you peaked between these giant megaphones – that resembled “Devo hats” turned sideways, I could picture beautiful mountainside. Before us were the most beautiful views possible … just trapped behind what must have been the biggest satellite dishes one could imagine. … And, speaking of which, we were told not to “worry about those.” Ok, then, so we started to mix and mingle with the people.
Now, it is around this time that the tour guide, who has less and less of a well-corralled control of us and our fellow newcomers, begins to explain life here on/in _________? (name escapes me). He says that the absolute, unquestionable credo of ________ is absolute and unchecked freedom for all. I thought to myself, well, this is encouraging. But then, as we wandered about the open spaces and into town, we began to notice what unbridled freedom apparently meant here on _________. In the middle of a well-trafficked street a sports shop had been constructed. I love a good sporting good shop, and despite the odd placement, wandered in. This one seemed to specialize in selling vintage college jerseys and T-shirts from the U.S., though I can’t say I recognized many of the names of the colleges and teams.
We left and approached a fountain, where – and this is where the dream is a little hazy in my memory – I did something to upset a brunette woman wearing yellow (perhaps I through a coin in the fountain)? And she just went off on me. And after realizing this part was “real” and I was her actual target, I put up my hands as if to try and take a turn to ask what I had done. That only seemed to set her off more, and she talked about the freedom she had to humiliate and torment me to the point I turned into a prune if she so chose. We walked away, and she did not follow… which we thought strange, but didn’t stop to complain or ask.
Around this point, my dream began to morph into what at first seemed like another dream. Erin was no longer there. But it was instead a continuation, as I realized I was now inside one of the giant megaphones or satellite dishes I described earlier as HUGE, sky-blinding “Devo Hats.” Turns out, these installations were battle stations, each with laser capacity to destroy invaders who were trying to do _________ country/world harm. And then the dream just sort of ended.
Unsatisfied with my story? That makes two of us. I’m the kind of dreamer who can wake up, hit the restroom, come back to sleep, and continue the same dream. But once I’ve woken for the morning, the story has left the subconscious. And I so wish I had more hours to sleep and see if this dream would take me. But alas, it was not my destiny the other night. But here are some things to consider as I invite you to use the “Comments” section to interpret the dream as you might theorize it.
- Clearly some part of me wishes I was somewhere else?…
- … but I discover that there are drawbacks to an alternative place to “start over” (grass is greener view of life)
- Unchecked freedom clearly has its flaws. It relies on human nature making the best possible choices every time, which clearly – from an urban planning/zoning standpoint (the sports shop) and the standpoint of receiving a likely unprovoked verbal assault from a stranger – wasn’t happening in this new utopia. Unchecked freedom … Discuss!?
- Even in a world perceived to be better, the gigantic laser defense installations clearly tell me my subconscious I must be vigilant and on-guard against some unknown threat? But why was I specifically told not to worry about them? Is that a message about the military industrial complex telling me not to mind what they are up to? Hmmmm.
Anyway – more dreams to come, I’m sure. Would love to hear your theories. Or perhaps you wish to use the Comments section to share a strange dream of your own? Either way, thanks for reading!!
Leave a Reply