Day 256 -- What's in a Dream?

Dreams -- precognition, jumbled random thoughts or working through anxieties of the day. Their genesis or purpose seems not to be completely understood, though much has been written on the subject. For those I recall when I wake up, there have been many types of dreams and even a few recurrent dreams. Trying to deduce the meaning of some dreams is a fool's errand -- some just don't make sense. Others can be easier to disentangle as they may often deal with our inner fears or reflect overly anxious periods in our lives.

When particularly stressed from work or life events, there is a movie marathon of anxiety dreams that plays through my head. One had to do with me being late for a math exam at school -- a subject that took extra effort to pull together, perhaps the reason that none of my degrees are in that subject area <smile>. Once I began to teach at a university, this dream morphed into me being late for invigilating a math exam for a course I had forgotten about and not instructed all term. So, the brain seems to be able to switch context to make the thing more salient. The more calming type of dream in times of heightened anxiety either has me visiting places that have always made me feel secure or have given me the chance to visit or speak with someone who I can no longer phone for a chat. Either way, these dreams seem to help me wake feeling a bit less stressed -- either laughing at the silliness of a situation or smiling from the visit with a loved one.  So, they do seem to play a purpose.

I chose a song for today that carries some of the surreal aspects of dreams both in the words and the music. It is sung by one of my favourite poet-songwriters. Sweet dreams and Enjoy!

#9 Dream -- John Lennon