My mind was unusually busy with dream images and stories last night, Bush. And on into my half-hour meditation. No idea what sparked this sudden profusion, but the images just kept coming despite my efforts--during meditation--to keep them at bay as I usually try to do, by focusing on the breath. A rich but vaguely troubling experience of a mind on high speed production, but completely uncontrolled.
Anyway, here's the point. In one of those dreams my dog and I got stuck up in a tree. I was searching seriously--ridiculously, as one does in dreams--for the right words to call for help. I considered a simple "Help!" or even a good, old-fashioned "S.O.S!" but neither alternative seemed to be quite what was needed in the circumstance. Instead, I settled on "WE ARE IN TROUBLE!"--not an easy thing to shout and a strangely cumbersome construction to use in so dire a situation. But I started to call it out, or rather to try to call it out because, as is frequently the case in dreams, the mouth made the shape of the words but no sound came out. And of course nobody came to help.
It was only when I woke up that I realized what the dream was about, and it was that strange construction of words in my appeal for help that cued me in. Because of course we ARE in trouble. All of us. In this contry. In the world. Yesterday, Sunday, I had finally begun to read the scary new Kevin Phillips book, "American Theocracy: The Perils and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century," in which the author is at pains to describe just how much trouble we're in.
We're in trouble with our energy needs amd the dwindling supplies of oil in the world's reserve. We're in trouble in the Middle East, with your war, with the rise of Muslim radicalism, with Iran and its increasingly threatening military activities (a new torpedo yesterday, Bush! A new radar-proof missile the day before!) We're in trouble with the unending conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and their neighbors. We're in trouble with the global economy and the accompanying mass migration of people in search of jobs, a better life, security... We're in trouble in Africa and other parts of the world with drought, disease and starvation. We're in trouble with our global climate and our delicate ecology, our pollution of the Earth we're given to live on.
And especially we're in trouble because you, Bush, our president, are not on the side of the angels in all this mess. You're on the side of the demons--the polluters, the war mongers, the greedy, the power hungry (in both senses of that word.) My dream was literally true: WE ARE IN TROUBLE, and you, Bush, are not hearing the signals or the cries for help. You continue blindly on your destructive path--you "stay the course," no matter what. You turn a deaf ear and a blind eye. You are impervious to the great needs and the great agonies of the people of this ailing planet.
I repeat, Bush, WE ARE IN TROUBLE. I'm shouting it, stuck here ridiculously in my tree with my little dog, George. I'm trying the best I can to make myself heard and it feels like nobody is listening. The man who calls himself my president grins, and winks, and nods like a living doll. But he doesn't know what the fuck is going on, and he doesn't want to hear. It's a bad, bad dream, and it's time we all woke up.
About Me
- Peter Clothier
- Born and raised in the UK, lives in Los Angeles, California. A writer about art and artists, essayist, social observer, daily meditator and student of the Buddhist dharma.. and a long-time recovering academic. Happily out of a "job" since 1986--but "works" every day. Father to three great kids (why don't we have a proper word for, um, middle-aged "children"?) and grandfather to four wonderful grandchildren. Even after all these years in America, he still speaks English.
6 comments:
YIKES! Time to get that old detachment mojo working, Peter. Things will definitely change, and probably not for the best. Take comfort in knowing that a million years from now, whoever has succeeded to ascendancy on the planet will be digging our bones out of the shale and trying to figure out the significance of the "American Idol" cult.
I have those vivid dreams too, Peter. Every night, early AM. The morning of September 11, about 4:30, I was dreaming in a hotel room in Istanbul, a hotel situated smack between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. I was watching the back of a man who was staring at a grey wall in what seemed to be an office with no furniture. To my alarm, I was watching cracks appear along the wall near the floor. They were forming like running veins in a cartoon, but it was very realistic. I thought the man was a middle eastern man, but wasn't sure. The cracks were widening and were black and sinister looking. I knew the room was coming apart and I began to get very alarmed. Then a word came to me clearly and succinctly, "disintegration". The floor started to come away from the wall and I struggled to wake myself up. Then the early morning sun was just starting to come into my room, there between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. Later that afternoon, as I sat on the rooftop patio sipping a Turkish beer, thinking how superb everything was, relaxing there between the mosque and the old Christian church, a son of the hotel owner came up to us and said come down to the television, something terrible has happened.
I think all of us are having these nightmares, some earlier than later. Mine was a city on fire, and I was at a distance, one of my children, as a child, was running to me. I kept saying, it's okay, it's okay I'm here! Then awaken. I have many of these, not all the same, and yes, they are troubling. I've never thought of a shrink before, as I do meditation, but one may be in order if I can't shake these.
Thank you!
[url=http://yiwygadw.com/fprk/afdc.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://angbuwtb.com/rhwh/uapp.html]Cool site[/url]
Great work!
My homepage | Please visit
Nice site!
http://yiwygadw.com/fprk/afdc.html | http://nxfwcvbd.com/bdrz/cnis.html
Post a Comment