Last night -- another horrible dream. I was riding in the passenger car of an old-fashioned railroad and there was this big puffy guy, a smaller version of Oliver Hardy, who was brandishing a pistol. He was about to take hostages and shoot us folks. I grabbed his gun arm and wrestled him to the floor, but he was mighty strong. I called out to the other passengers, "Help me!" Eventually, a couple of people came to my aid and started to twist his arm. Then I yelled out, "Hit him!" and a couple of people started to bang his head with books. Heavy books. Then I shouted "Kick him!" and a crowd gathered and started in with their feet. After a while, I realized that the gangster/terrorist/kidnapper was dead, but I continued to punch to and kick him. I woke up with my heart beating 180 or so.
It took a while to regain my equanimity, but it wasn't long before I returned to sleep. I dreamed that I was reporting the dream to my daughter and son-in-law and that they were totally uninterested and bored by my story. Which I took to be a critique of my ability with narrative.
So if I tell any more dreams, I'll abbreviate (as I did above, where I left out all sorts of interesting details) for fear of alienating my audience.
I am right about your age, grew up in San Francisco. I am also an avid "dream catcher"..I have written and audio recorded many dreams over the years and decades.
To comment on a particular statement you made after disecting your dream: You state that your dream daughter and son-in-law seemed bored by your recounting (the details of)your dream, so you decided, based on that, to not tell your dreams to (awake) people for fear of boring them. Who was that telling you this? It probably wasn't your daughter or son-in-law. I say be open with as much detail as you can dredge up upon waking, telling (especially) yourself all the details so as to make the story more coherent.
I realize, though, if your dreams are as detailed and dense as mine tend to be, that it is tempting to leave out the little details, and all the more so if you are relating your dream to a hopefully patient, interested person.
Posted by: Rick | March 01, 2009 at 02:53 AM