Last night was a busy night for me. NASA had waited until the last minute to tell me I was going to be on the flight to the moon after all. As I was rushing around, getting things ready, I was bitter about the politics behind the whole thing.
If only Senator Brad Pitt, D-Calif., hadn’t led the charge to cut our space budget, we might have been able to plan this moon shot better. I know foreign aid is important, but none of the money he cut from our program went to help orphans.
The mission was so last minute that I was putting some of the expenses on my personal debit card because there wasn’t time to go through the standard requisition process. Also, I was distracted by a personal matter. I needed to get a letter to a woman to let her know I wouldn’t be able to keep our weekend plans, but I wasn’t allowed to tell her why (like she would have believed me anyway, right?).
This was one of those dreams that took several hours to wake up from. The moment I was awake, I of course remembered that I have neither the visual acuity nor the training required of an astronaut. And I was pretty sure that Brad Pitt hadn’t actually been elected to the Senate. Also, NASA doesn’t keep its missions secret (or does it?).
But as I was setting out today to run errands, I cursed my own wasteful spending. “Why did I spend all that money last night?” I asked myself. “I had been planning to buy new shoes. Now I’ve got no money left in my checking account.”
Wait a minute. Yes I do. I can afford my new shoes because I didn’t really empty my account buying space travel equipment last night.
It then occurred to me that I can keep my weekend engagement after all because it turns out I won’t actually be on the moon. So there’s the silver lining.
Dreams that stay with you after you’re awake can be very confusing. And sometimes disappointing. I’ve had dreams before about getting back together with a woman from my past. Then I wake up next to a completely different woman. I’ve dreamt about finally getting up the courage to break up with a woman, only to wake up and discover she was still there.
I don’t know which one is more of a disappointment.
I guess I’ve just been thinking about dreams lately because for the first time in a long time, I’m actually remembering my dreams on a regular basis. Recently, I started working a graveyard-shift job in order to put a little extra shoe/space-travel money in my pocket. Something about the change in my sleep schedule is helping me to remember my dreams.
I find it interesting that I still dream about the same things I did when I was younger. Except now when I need to go into space, I’m more focused on the financial and scheduling obstacles that need to be overcome. Do you suppose that’s the sort of thing shrinks are looking for when they ask to hear about your dreams? Maybe the moon represents law school: someplace I need to go despite the cost to my financial and social life.
If I sound like I lack a cogent point, it’s because I do. This column is a rambling free association of shifting tense and focus – much like a dream itself. I’m just kind of new to this whole remembering-my-dreams thing. It’s like I’ve added another eight hours a day to my life. In many traditions, dreams are considered prophetic.
Through their metaphor and imagery, they are harbingers of things to come: both good and bad omens. To me, though, they often seem like a jumbled record of the past. My dreams seem to be an amalgamation of past stimuli repackaged and rearranged for an entirely new effect. I suppose this could be prophetic if you are of the persuasion that history repeats or that the past is the best way to predict the future. Yet it was his inability to predict “what dreams may come,” that kept Hamlet from committing suicide.
Anyway, now that I know I can afford it, I’ve got to go buy some shoes.
I’m dreaming of a white astronaut suit
Daily Emerald
May 10, 2006
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