There are people who start off the breakfast table conversation with, "I had this dream last night...". X tells Y his dream while Y listens patiently with an attentive look on her face, and then Y tells X her dream, same look on X's face. Many of us do this. The dream is quickly evaporating and we can hold onto the shreds only by telling or writing down. This dream-telling is also a form of friendly communication: "I'm here, you're here, we are enjoying this moment."
Dream-telling is also a way of beginning a story or song. Remember the opening line of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca?
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...
Or perhaps this English folk song, a sea shanty, there are many versions, but here is the version currently floating around in my head:
I dreamed a dream the other night
Lowlands, lowlands away my John
I dreamed a dream the other night
Lowlands, my lowlands away
I dreamed my love came standing by
Came standing close by my bedside
She’s drowning in the lowland sea
And never more coming home to me
The sea-green weed was in her hair
‘Twas then I knew there was no life left there
She lies there in the windy lowlands
She lies there in the windy lowlands
I dreamed a dream the other night
A dream can also be seen as a metaphor for a wish or a passionately held vision, as in the famous lines from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial:
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
But sometimes a dream is just a dream, a rearranging and stitching together of all that stuff roiling around in the subconscious. Most of the time it's silly soup in the light of day, but occasionally insights bubble to the top and beg to be noted. So, my friends, I had a dream last night...
In my dream I was sitting at the loom and weaving, but at the same time I was sitting at the computer and designing a cloth. I was simultaneously typing and throwing a shuttle, the movements were somehow amalgamated. I was looking at the growing web, feeling its solidity and "clothness" but this cloth was the same as the pixels on the computer monitor. Not too hard to figure out!
Here's a little graph to summarize what I mean. This is my dream-telling to you. Then you can go on and finish your breakfast.
