Dream a Little Dream...

Oh my... what time is it? My dear, is it that time already? I must have overslept. Give me a moment to stretch these old bones.   POP!   CRACK!   SNAP!
Ohhh yes, that's much better. You know what they say, time flies when you're having fun. Which I guess means that whilst we're all captured in our houses, rattling our cages in desperation, time crashed a long time ago. It's been dragging along the ground, scraping its feet like a rotting zombie. But, despite the slow and staggering march of time, we have arrived once again at the season of scare, the hour of horror, the month of monsters... "hallowtide" - and of course, the Halloween Countdown, starting with the anniversary of my own daunting creation - my birthday.

Happy Birthday to you, but beware what you do....
Or this might be the last time, that we sing this to you!

Ah! Time to celebrate, let's all gather in the streets and- oh, I do apologize, it must have slipped my mind. Not everyone is allowed to leave their homes. What have you people been doing, trapped inside all this time?
Climbing the walls? Going stir crazy?
It's true that a lot of people have suffered because of their entrapment, and not just the people in my basement. Humans crave each other, as friends, lovers and prey, and so when we they are separate, it can drive us all a little whacko.

All of this separation anxiety has actually brought to my mind the subject of dreams... The word of the day is 'DREAM':

Dream /dreem/ n. 1. A succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep. 2. The sleeping state in which this occurs. 3. An object seen in a dream. 4. An involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake. 5. A vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie. 6. An aspiration; goal; aim: A trip to Europe is his dream. 7. A wild or vain fancy. 8. Something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence. ♦ v.i. 9. Dreamed or dreamt, dream·ing. 10. To have a dream. 11. To indulge in daydreams or reveries: He dreamed about vacation plans when he should have been working. 12. To think or conceive of something in a very remote way (usually followed by of): I wouldn't dream of asking them. ♦ v.t. 13. Dreamed or dreamt, dream·ing. 14. To see or imagine in sleep or in a vision. 15. To imagine as if in a dream; fancy; suppose. 16. To pass or spend (time) in dreaming (often followed by away): to dream away the afternoon. ♦ adj. 17. Most desirable; ideal: a dream vacation.

Why dreams? Well, with everyone stuck at home, sleep is the only thing we can rely on with any certainty - for some, it's the only thing on their schedule.
But much more than that, this notion of being alone, when surrounded by others, brings to my mind the nature of dreams. When you dream, you are inside your own mind, even though you may feel like you're surrounded by others. There may be people you recognize, people you know, that you see in dreams - but when you talk to them, you're really only talking to yourself.

Dreams are the ultimate trap, because you can convince yourself that you're not alone, when you're the only real person there... which is also why dreams can only work if your brain is sleeping - your reasoning centres and logic are all put to rest, so that the talking toilet seat in your mind doesn't raise concern until you wake up again. If you could actually reason and understand everything that was happening in your dreams, then you'd be horrified...
Trapped in an unreal and imperfect world, limited by your experiences. You can never see anything new or original, because you can only see what you've already seen before. No new friends, no new experiences, no new stories.

A few times, during this lockdown, it has felt like living in a dream. Because of the isolation and the repeating images, reliving the same thing again and again. There is a term for this - derealization. In some senses, it is the opposite of realization, which is coming to understand something, to percieve something as true. Instead, it's comind to misunderstand something, to lose a sense of what and where you are, and percieve the things around you as untrue or unreal.
But moreso than that, it's a symptom of mental unwellness... losing grip on reality and feeling detached from the physical world.

And this is before we even get into the question of nightmares. Our dreams are when our minds explore the depths within, piecing together information in new ways as we form memories... but not everything in our minds is so sweet and cute and innocent. The things that scare us and traumatize us; the things we regret and despise & the things we thought were long forgotten can all be dug up and shovelled back in front of us - and by the very thing you thought you could trust, your own mind. During this Halloween Countdown, I want to explore dreams, and nightmares and the many things that come with them. So, won't you join me?

I'm the Absurd Word Nerd, and until next time... sleep tight.