Could it be that among the ways Covid-19 affected us includes how and what we dream? Months ago, I posted the details of one of my pandemic dreams, and today seems like a good day to revisit that post and its aftermath:
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.
***
That post provoked several comments from readers who suggested interpretations. Here are the comments from Norene Walden and Barbara Miller:
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.
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
* Did Covid Change How We Dream? -- All around the world, the pandemic provoked strange nocturnal visions. Can they help shed light on the age-old question of why we dream at all? (NYT)
* Explainer: What's the difference between 1.5°C and 2°C of global warming? -- Scientists have said crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change effects on people, wildlife and ecosystems. (Reuters)
* VIDEO: Protesters in Glasgow Demand Climate Action (Reuters, AP)
* U.S. court blocks Biden's vaccine mandate for companies (BBC)
* Democrats again lament their weakness in rural areas, but they don’t have an answer to the problem(WP)
* What Alaska’s shrinking island means for all of us -- The village of Shishmaref, in Northern Alaska, may have to be relocated due to rising temperatures, thawing permafrost, and rapid coastal erosion. (BBC)
* In Iraq's famed marshlands, climate change is upending a way of life (NPR)
* Convenience store chain deploys first shelf-stocking robot (NHK)
* A desperate Afghan father said he sold his 9-year-old daughter for $2200 to buy food for his other kids: report (Business Insider)
* Rebel advance to within 200 miles of Ethiopia’s capital puts the city and wider region on edge (WP)
* Why forest fires in Siberia, Russia threaten us all (BBC)
(WP)
* In its attention to substitution, Domenico Starnone’s “Trust” embodies the joy of moving words from one language to another. (New Yorker)
* Literary Historians Discover Hemingway’s Dad Bulk Purchased 70,000 Copies Of ‘The Sun Also Rises’ To Get Son On Bestseller List (The Onion)
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