"Dreaming My Dreams With You"

(Title, with apologies to Waylon Jennings and Allen Reynolds.)

I'm glad I wrote about my dream yesterday and how it shook my confidence in where I thought I was in my life. I will not try to analyze the dream but two friends' interpretations are reprinted below.

That it reflected a kind of post-pandemic anxiety seems obvious; what surprised me is I had not been aware of feeling anxious, but only excitement about the next stage of my life. Every day for alwhile now, the freedom to move around and see people has animated me.

Plus for too long it seemed like this time might never come.

Even now, a much larger threat than Covid looms, of course, in climate change. Most of us, even those who have worried and warned about this for years, probably hoped that we were wrong.

Barring that, we hoped it wouldn't be as bad or at least it wouldn't happen as soon as the scientific models predicted.

But with fires, floods and hurricanes all descending on us this summer, it has become obvious that even as one huge calamity recedes, the next wave is coming. We will have to cope; we will have to adapt.

Many years ago I attended a government meeting in San Francisco that focused on water issues. The coastal area where this city is located is actually much more like a desert than a rainforest. The main thing I recall from the meeting was a consensus that since we couldn't prevent rising sea levels from damaging our city perched on the edge of the Pacific, we could and should *mitigate* against the consequences.

We get our drinking water here from the Hetch Hetchy, an ancient glacial valley in the northwestern corner of Yosemite that was inhabited by indigenous hunters and gatherers for 6,000 years. Its name probably comes form a Miwok term meaning "edible grasses," and it was considered by early settlers every bit as beautiful a valley as Yosemite.

After the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed San Francisco, it became obvious that the city needed a major new source of water. After much controversy the valley was dammed in 1923 to provide water to the thirsty city 167 miles to the west, partly as the result of pressure generated by William Randolph Hearst's media empire.

People still fight over Hetch Hetchy today. Environmentalists think the dam should be destroyed and the valley restored to its pristine state. 

How San Francisco would be watered in that event is unknown.

***

Since so many people reacted to my dream post Sunday, I'm republishing it here followed by interpretative comments from Facebook friends Norene Walden and Barbara Miller. I'm including them because they are fascinating and I know many people do not make it to the bottom of my *long* posts to see the comments. (There were dozens yesterday.)

DREAM

I awoke in a cold sweat. I'd been driving in the city, parked somewhere, and walked into a theater. A play began; everybody wore bright lipstick but no one spoke. They were acting out in mime. Afterward a priest walked up and down the aisle. He stopped at my seat and told me that I had "it" and that I was critical. I asked what that meant and he said he didn't know but maybe I should stay home from work. I stumbled out of that place and landed at an open-air cafe where people were waiting for food. A homeless woman took a liking to me and kissed me on the lips. Don't do that, I said, you might get sick, A man helped me get away from there but I had to start crossing a street shaped like a pentagon, which proved nearly impossible. Who shall I call at work, I thought. My assistant! No, wait, I don't have an assistant. Then it hit me. There was no work. Then it hit me again. I'd forgotten where I had parked the car. Then it really hit me. I didn't have a car.

FROM NORENE:

David’s Dream:

*Driving - your journey

*City- social aspect

*Park ‘somewhere’- flexible

*Theatre- life’s a stage

(Indeed)

*Play began -

*Everyone Bright lips -

Women highlight their mouths as part of performance to be seen. But saying nothing?

*Acting out in mime -

Body language. Highly nuanced. For audience to read in the silence between the lines?

*Priest - your spiritual side

*Walk up & down isle - as seeker, searching

*Stopped at your seat - finding yourself, facing yourself

*What you have is critical - Serious. Urgent. Got to get this right. (you very much want to get the next part right).

Asking (inner dialogue)

*What does that mean? -

*Priest doesn’t know-

how to seriously address this on-the-edge condition.

How am I to even try to get it right if I don’t know what it should look/be like?

*Maybe stay home from work -

Consider the ‘you’ aside from career?

*stumbled out and into cafe

open air and others waiting for food -

Rendered unsteady to consider being sans career/work.

Then Cafe lends itself to basic human connection (‘touch’ the air/sky = breathe easier). An expectation in that setting to be nourished, sustenance = life/alive.

*Homeless Woman -

Women drawn to you (perhaps because of your career) who don’t have a place of their own on the inside? Boundaries. Sovereignty. Sacred territory.

Any memory of how the kiss felt in the dream might help to inform you about what ‘homeless’ indicates to you.

Tone and feelings matter.

Also could be related to mostly physical attraction but shallow. Could be connected to the bright lips on stage that say nothing and only bodies are expressive.

- Ever been in love and it feels like “coming Home”?)

*Don’t do that. You might get sick -

You might catch my critical condition. Or just echoes of Covid consciousness mingled in?

*A man helped me get away from there -

The man - another aspect of self that honors your being male and what that means to you ...

*Street shaped like a pentagon - (which way do I go?) Could be the symbolism of the military headquarters Pentagon. Choosing a direction, inner battles, need for protection.

But these are things you can intuit best.

What follows about work (back to career)

Who shall I call?

My assistant?

Have no assistant

Then it hit you

There is no work -

Can’t find car - car is you

Don’t have a car!

Who are you now that your life journey is going through this radical metamorphosis? It’s unnatural to separate one’s life and work.

Here you are seeking some way you’ve not known before. You, the one that will be loved so well in your third act.

FROM BARBARA:

At this time I am rereading Jerzy Kozinski's brilliantly poignant in its descriptions of the worst destructive impulses driven by superstition, ignorance, fear, which they project from the evil in themselves onto others:. The worst examples occurring during the both world wars and in the major civil wars since then around the globe. I noticed he dedicated the book published in 1965 to his wife Mary Hayward Weir.

Any relation? The dream was of interest to me since it had to do with ageing and fears of loss, particularly associated with the beginnings of dementia. For your age the details of your recall if the dream suggests a mind with the powerful cognitive skills of a much younger intellectual.

Your unconscious appears to be at the height of it's power of making the unconscious conscious. U r your own analyst and the dreamscape can be interpreted in many ways. The fear of dying if covid is certainly there esp given constant coverage of delta variant.

The ugly old woman reminds me of a frog kissing perhaps a scary creature, perhaps with a disability and turning him into a young handsome prince.

Perhaps a wish for eternal youth and attractiveness or perhaps something more subtle..at least a visual representation of immortality.

I see trouble crossing a Pentagon shaped street as fears of your five senses declining in acuity as you continue to age until you are no longer able to perceive the world around you as it actually is. In ur dream u much younger achieving great success in your field of expertise so much so you have an assistant. In the present time you still have assistants who make sure all your needs are met which allow you to continue to be productive as a newscaster via social media and perhaps as an author. The first sign of dementia is loss of sense of navigation, the second is loss of articulation..you can't remember the word or name you are trying to recall..very disturbing for a journalist. I know it is for me. Instead of the processing time being a few seconds, now it can be a few hours.

Recently I forgot where I parked my car. I looked for two hours after thinking I had a mini stroke in the hot son. Many dreams after of being lost and relieved upon awakening. Last month my car was stolen. In my dream I keep looking for it.

First light of day I awake realizing I don't have a car. I adjust very quickly as Sacramento has an excellent transit system. I realize I can handle shocks and disappointments easier now than any other decade of my life. I know the Sword of Damocles is hanging by a thread over all our heads, esp with rapidly evolving covid variants. Each morning when I awake I am consciously grateful I am still alive. I am also grateful the people I love are still alive. That alone is a dream come true.

***

I want to thank both of you for analyzing the dream far beyond anything I could do on my own. It was such a startling experience that I wrote it down immediately upon waking up. You've expanded my thinking immeasurably, and I am very grateful.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide -- Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners. (WP)

* Canada’s farmers brace for new heat wave as scorching summer leaves cherries roasting on trees (WP)

* The floods are terrifying, says Merkel as European death toll rises to 184 (Reuters)

* ‘No One Is Safe’: Extreme Weather Batters the Wealthy World -- Floods swept Germany, fires ravaged the American West and another heat wave loomed, driving home the reality that the world’s richest nations remain unprepared for the intensifying consequences of climate change. (NYT)

* ‘Hawkpocalypse’: Baby birds of prey have leaped from their nests to escape West’s extreme heat (WP)

* 

A rapidly growing wildfire south of Lake Tahoe jumped a highway, prompting more evacuation orders and the cancellation of an extreme bike ride through the Sierra Nevada as critically dangerous wildfire weather loomed in the coming days. (AP)

* U.S. envoys face daunting mission in Kabul with little military backup -- As American military forces depart Afghanistan, the U.S. diplomats and aid workers who remain behind, bunkered at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, will encounter significant and dangerous challenges, current and former officials say. (WP)

* Let the Games … Be Gone?  -- After bidding scandals, human rights outrages, overburdened host cities, rampant cheating, a pandemic — and, sure, thrilling competitions — has the world had enough of the Olympics?

* Wall Street drops as Delta variant drives fears (Reuters)

* To Trump’s hard-core supporters, his rallies weren’t politics. They were life. (WP)

* Can Silicon Valley Find God? -- Artificial intelligence promises to remake the world. These believers are fighting to make sure thousands of years of text and tradition find a place among the algorithms. (NYT)

* Fed's Kashkari says many U.S. sectors struggling to adjust to reopening (Reuters)

* Back to Militias, the Chaotic Afghan Way of War -- Concerned by the Taliban’s offensive, regional power brokers are again recruiting and arming volunteer militias. But some fear the quick fix will lead to a wider breakdown. (NYT)

* U.S. tech companies disappointed with DACA ruling, urge Congress to act (Reuters)

* Collapse Raises New Fears About Florida’s Shaky Insurance Market -- Insurers were already skittish after losses from repeated hurricanes. The recent condo collapse has brought new insecurity. How long will Florida’s coast be insurable? (NYT)

*  

Virus transforms hajj in Mecca and future of the pilgrimage (AP)

* In Undervaccinated Arkansas, Covid Upends Life All Over Again -- While much of the nation tiptoes toward normalcy, the coronavirus is again swamping hospitals in places like Mountain Home, in a rural county where fewer than one-third of residents are vaccinated. (NYT)

* Red-Hot U.S. Economy Expected to Cool From Here --Growth likely hit a high point in the second quarter and will slow as the boosts from fiscal stimulus and reopenings fade, economists say. (WSJ)

* How Republican Vaccine Opposition Got to This Point -- In recent months, Republican skepticism of Covid vaccines and their rollout has grown louder: One recent poll found that 47 percent said they weren’t likely to get vaccinated. (NYT)

* A Battle On The Gulf Pits The Coast Guard Against Mexican Red Snapper Poachers -- Mexican fishermen are illegally plundering tons of red snapper from the lower Texas Gulf and raising the ire of the U.S. Coast Guard, Texas fishermen, marine biologists and the federal government. (NPR)

* Pile Of Dirty Clothes On Bedroom Floor Starting To Mix With Pile Of Clean Clothes On Bedroom Floor (The Onion)

***

"Talkin’ World War III Blues"

WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN 

Some time ago a crazy dream came to me
I dreamt I was walkin’ into World War Three
I went to the doctor the very next day
To see what kinda words he could say
He said it was a bad dream
I wouldn’t worry ’bout it none, though
They were my own dreams and they’re only in my head

I said, “Hold it, Doc, a World War passed through my brain”
He said, “Nurse, get your pad, this boy’s insane”
He grabbed my arm, I said, “Ouch!”
As I landed on the psychiatric couch
He said, “Tell me about it”

Well, the whole thing started at 3 o’clock fast
It was all over by quarter past
I was down in the sewer with some little lover
When I peeked out from a manhole cover
Wondering who turned the lights on

Well, I got up and walked around
And up and down the lonesome town
I stood a-wondering which way to go
I lit a cigarette on a parking meter and walked on down the road
It was a normal day

Well, I rung the fallout shelter bell
And I leaned my head and I gave a yell
“Give me a string bean, I’m a hungry man”
A shotgun fired and away I ran
I don’t blame them too much though, I know I look funny

Down at the corner by a hot-dog stand
I seen a man
I said, “Howdy friend, I guess there’s just us two”
He screamed a bit and away he flew
Thought I was a Communist

Well, I spied a girl and before she could leave
“Let’s go and play Adam and Eve”
I took her by the hand and my heart it was thumpin’
When she said, “Hey man, you crazy or sumpin’
You see what happened last time they started”

Well, I seen a Cadillac window uptown
And there was nobody aroun’
I got into the driver’s seat
And I drove down 42nd Street
In my Cadillac. Good car to drive after a war

Well, I remember seein’ some ad
So I turned on my Conelrad
But I didn’t pay my Con Ed bill
So the radio didn’t work so well
Turned on my record player—
It was Rock-a-day Johnny singin’, “Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa
Our Love’s A-gonna Grow Ooh-wah, Ooh-wah”

I was feelin’ kinda lonesome and blue
I needed somebody to talk to
So I called up the operator of time
Just to hear a voice of some kind
“When you hear the beep it will be three o’clock”
She said that for over an hour
And I hung up

Well, the doctor interrupted me just about then
Sayin’, “Hey I’ve been havin’ the same old dreams
But mine was a little different you see
I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me
I didn’t see you around”

Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams
Everybody sees themselves
Walkin’ around with no one else
Half of the people can be part right all of the time
Some of the people can be all right part of the time
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”
I said that

-30-