Dreams of yesteryear.

Last night, I had the strangest dream. It was the kind of dream that lingered into the waking state.

Indeed, as I lay, between sleep and waking, I thought I heard my parents, downstairs: it was as if I could half-hear them, in distant conversation. Then I awoke, fully, and the sensation faded.

Yet, for a moment, it seemed as if I was back in my parental home, in my former bedroom, listening to the world, from my vantage on the top floor. It was uncanny. It was also most meaningful. It told me, in the way the unconscious is wont to tell us, that, perhaps, it is time to go home. I really should visit my parents, soon. I have been living in far flung places, too long, it seems. So, a visit, at least, is in order.

Many years have passed since I left for Singapore, in 1999. Barring a couple of years’ break, I have lived in South-East Asia, ever since. I have learnt new perspectives on the world and come to understand things I would not otherwise have done. Yet, there has been an “opportunity cost” of doing so. I have foregone all the time I could have spent with my family in Europe. I have missed many opportunities for conversation and sharing. I have lost out on many events that others witnessed, but I did not.

What, perhaps, is not so readily realized by most, is that the life we choose, comes at an infinite cost. To choose one life, is to give up the infinite variety of other lives that we could have lived instead. Thus, all lives come at infinite cost and infinite sacrifice. This morning, before the world awoke, I lay abed and felt an echo of that sacrifice: I felt the world I had left behind, impinge on my present. I felt, once more, what it was like to be home, as it was, when I was younger. It was a comforting visitation from yesteryear. I fell asleep, again, thereafter, to dream dreams of impossible places and worlds that will never be realized. Yet, I had felt a “dream” of a world that was once very real to me. I slept very well.

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The surreal dreams of a young boy.

Children are supposed to have imagination. Some children do, some children don't, some children just have TV (no imagination required). However, all children have dreams...and, of course, the more imaginative children show this characteristic when dreaming.

A couple of weeks ago, Tiarnan, four, had a dream. It struck me as a rather bizarre one. Can you imagine, for a moment, what Tiarnan might have dreamt? Try to imagine yourself into a four year old boy's world, and think what he might have dreamt.

Please think of every detail of your imagined dream that you can - one that would suit a four year old boy.

Perhaps you could write the dream you guessed he had, down below.

Well, Tiarnan spoke, rather excitedly, a couple of weeks ago, of his dream the night before. In it the Incredible Hulk had been belly dancing. That is right, a key feature of Tiarnan's dream was that the Hulk was doing a belly dance. Tiarnan thought it was very funny. Of course, he is unaware that dreams come from within him, I should think...he saw it as a very entertaining image of his nightly sleep.

Tiarnan's dream seems to be reflective of who he is: in his young mind, all sorts of unusual remarks take place. He seems to be able to connect the previously unconnected and see the previously unseen. It is a good quality and promises a creative future, in some way or other. I very much doubt whether anyone else has imagined the Incredible Hulk - the quintessential male - doing belly dancing - quintessentially female. Yet, Tiarnan saw fit to combine them, in his dream, for comic effect.

Of course, I have no idea why his dreaming mind thought it reasonable to make the Hulk do a belly dance - maybe it just thought it would be funny to watch.

What makes this dream image of Tiarnan's even more unlikely is that the only contexts in which he has seen the Hulk, are when he is fighting in a cartoon or in a computer game. He has never seen the Hulk as anything else...thus, it is quite a stretch, to suddenly imagine the Hulk as a graceful belly dancer! It seems his mind feels free to break from stereotypical categorizations, and try to see things in a new way. Perhaps, of course, it is just seeing potential comedy, in what it knows of the world. Whatever is the case, it is certainly a memorable image.

To some, this post might seem like a little thing - but, to me, it is not. It captures the essence of one of my youngest son's dreams. I have no such record of my own. So, I make this record so that, one day, Tiarnan might smile, perhaps in remembrance, at the dream he once had as a child, of a Marvel Superhero, doing a belly dance.

Happy dreaming, Tiarnan.