A recent episode of the MASH series we are watching was titled “Dreams.” The story line involved each character having a catnap and slipping briefly into a dream world. Every dream featured something pleasant to the dreamer that was interrupted by the realities of the Korean War. Lately there has been a common theme to my dreams as well.
The theme was introduced when I dreamed of being at the home where Cindy grew up. Her immediate family members were there; each one took turns saying a final goodbye to Cindy. She was lucid and these final goodbyes were meaningful, not empty, but the reality of why these final goodbyes were necessary loomed as a backdrop.
Shorty after that I had a dream about my kids. On successive days (in the dream) I came around the corner on a sidewalk to find my kids smiling at me. They were only 7-9 years old in appearance; they greeted me each day with childlike warmth and enthusiasm. Yet my purpose for coming around the corner each day was to resolve some family matter of the past. An adult expectation was behind each youthful smile.
In the most recent dream along this theme I had traveled to New Hampshire in the pedicab. My mission was to see an old friend from my past, with whom I have lost contact. Seeing him still proved elusive and I met instead with his former girlfriend and business partner, from back in the days when my old friend and I lived together. I did not obtain the closure I wanted, but the only closure that was available.
They say that dreams are the subconscious dealing with matters of the conscious. You do not need to be Freud to figure out the matter lodged in my subconscious, a matter begging for an assortment of closures. I also know the evidence behind the wise fiction of Narnia, where mariners who suffered from being in a land of eternal dreams were transported to an island where they finally could experience dreamless sleep.
The “Dreams” episode of MASH ended with the cast deciding to drink late night coffee to avoid further dreaming. Their pleasant reminisces were not worth the painful intrusion of reality. Yet rest is necessary for health. While a dreamless sleep is healthier than one filled with dreams, I must settle for dream filled rest these days. Perhaps the closure I need most is to be like the mariners in Narnia, to discover the island where I can have dreamless sleep.
