"To Sleep, Perchance to Dream"



Everybody's got to sleep!
And dream too, maybe?

I'm not a Joseph or a Daniel, and so I don't claim Divine origin for my dreams. However, sometimes when my thought "censor" is off-duty, I get a bit of insight while I'm asleep. (If that turns you off, close the page.) Here goes! 

An acquaintance of mine from fifty years ago, a woman I had not even thought of for perhaps forty years, left her eight- or nine-year old son with me while she went out for the evening. He was an absolute terror! He was totally out of control, and I am no stranger to unmanageable children. Finally in desperation, I called the mother. She had been partying, and much to my dismay, she was incoherent from too much alcohol. She was no help at all, because she couldn't even drive to come for the child.

 I will take him to the police station and just leave him there, I thought. They will deal with the situation appropriately. (Now I wouldn't even consider such a thing in my waking life, but in my dream it seemed like a plausible option.) Except . . . Well, that was like deserting him. Not good at all—but whatever shall I do with this wild child?

My mother who was sitting nearby while this was happening spoke up very timidly. "Well, I feel some responsibility for him . . . " she said hesitantly. And just then the phone rang.



"This is So-and-So," the caller said, giving me his name. "I am Dr. Isaac's son, and I am right now leaving the gathering where I've been." He was on his way! "Ah!" I thought. "The voice of reason."



And then I woke up.

 

That wasn't really Mary and her son that I knew long ago, I realized. And that was not my mother. It wasn't Dr. Isaac's son, and it wasn't really the person who was me in the dream. All of those responses are choices for the real-life ME! When faced with a truly impossible situation, I can choose any of those four options.

 

►I can ignore it and go my own way, regardless of my personal responsibility.

 

►I can shove the situation onto someone else and let them decide how to handle it, even if the outcome will not be beneficial.



►I can, without any guidance or gifts for doing so, involve myself in caretaking that I am unsuited to do.

►I can carefully turn the problem over to someone who is both capable and dispassionate—who has "the voice of reason."



I don't know what I decided to do in my dream. But I know what I will try to do in real life!



MaryMartha



Art from http://www.sxc.hu/