Why are dreams so bizarre?

Last night I dreamed I was in this big city, and I went into a jewelry store. There were a whole bunch of teenage girls crowded around this one jewelry counter, so I went over to see if there was a big sale going on. Inside the glass case were all kinds of Georgia bulldog jewelry at super low prices. While I was at the counter, a salesperson came along and asked me what I wanted to drink, so I ordered a diet coke. Then this young Hispanic girl with a smart mouth comes along and sits next to me. On the other side, a black girl was admiring this necklace made of stone, and I admired it with her. While I wasn’t looking, the Hispanic girl picked up my coke and took a swig of it. I turned around just in time to see her put it back in place. “Now I won’t be able to drink my coke,” I said, “because I don’t drink after anybody!” She seemed surprised and a little sorry. About that time, Will Smith walked into the store. Everyone started watching him. When he left the store, a little black boy was standing in the middle of the street, about to get hit by a car. Will threw himself at the boy, knocking him out of the way of the car and falling on top of him. Then he noticed the little boy’s socks. They were an ugly, multi-colored pair of striped socks, just like the ones that Will was wearing. Will’s mother had sent him the socks from another city – he decided the little boy must be his very own brother who had received a similar pair of socks from their mother. The little boy was homeless, so Will took him back to his apartment. (Never mind how a little homeless boy got mail; I guess he had a post office box!) By now, in my dream I am watching a new Will Smith movie that I had never heard about and wondered why they hadn’t advertised it. Next scene shows Will’s apartment. He has married the smart-mouthed Hispanic girl from the jewelry counter, and they have taken in a whole slew of homeless kids in every size, shape, and color, including a little white baby with curly blond hair. End of dream.

Now where do such dreams come from? I wracked my brain trying to think of what in my real life might have triggered such a bizarre dream. I was looking at jewelry at Steinmart the other day, so I guess that part makes sense – but the rest of it remains a mystery. I wish I understood the science behind dreams. Why do we have them, anyway? I have read before that they are important to our mental health. I’ve also read that everyone dreams, though Doug insists he rarely does – that might explain a few things! :) At any rate, I’ve noticed a bit of a pattern in my own dreams. It seems like when my real life is going well, my dreams are weird and disconcerting. (I rarely have really bad dreams or nightmares.) But when my real life is not going well, and I’m actually depressed, my dreams become quite pleasant. It’s as if my dreams compensate for what I’m missing in real life. So maybe dreams are some sort of balancing mechanism, used to keep us grounded. To tell the truth, though, I’ve never heard anyone else say that their dreams follow such a pattern.

I’ve also read that people almost always dream in black and white. Well, I don’t. My dreams are in full color. Does that mean anything? I can tell you exactly what those multicolored striped socks in my Will Smith dream looked like, mostly green and orange.

When I was a child, mainly during my preteen years, I had some dreams that seemed prophetic – they actually came true. That was scary. It first happened when I was about eight. One night I dreamed that a mean little boy that lived down the road from us came to play. He grabbed our bird dog, Trudy, by the hind legs and twisted them around and around, breaking her bones. The next day, I was standing at the end of the driveway waiting for the school bus. Trudy was beside me as usual. The “colored” bus went roaring by and Trudy ran out to chase it. The back wheels of the bus hit her and sent her flying, with her back legs flopping around and around! Both hips were broken, and she was in a cast for weeks afterwards. Thanks to the UGA veterinary school, she survived her injuries.

I later dreamed that one day Daddy came home with a new dog that someone had given him, and believe it or not, that very week he brought home Grinda, the best German Shepherd that ever lived. A lady he was doing forestry work for had given him the dog because she could no longer keep her. We only had Grinda for a little over a year before she was hit by a car, but the whole family grew to love her right away. She was extremely intelligent, loving, and patient. She would lie quietly on the floor when my baby sister toddled up and plopped her diapered behind down on top of Grinda’s head! She also thought it her duty to “rescue” my younger sister, Mary Jane, from the cow pond when we swam in it, pushing her back to shore with her paws.

In another dream, I was standing on the deck outside my bedroom door and looking toward the Crawford-Lexington area, when I spotted a tornado. That night, a real tornado hit in that very area and flattened two chicken houses.

During this same period of time, I often experienced overwhelming feelings of deja vu. I could only surmise that I had dreamed the event in advance.

The prophetic dreams seemed to end once I grew up, but to this day, if I dream about something bad happening to someone I love, it terrifies me, and I pray hard that it won’t come true.

Dreams must serve some purpose, as most things do happen for a reason. I just knew what it was!

The Best Laid Plans...

Well, things didn't turn out quite the way I thought they would when I wrote that last post. My sister Mary Jane called to say she wouldn't be coming up after all. She had had eleven baby goats born the night before, and some of them were in bad shape and needed to be bottle-fed. She was also expecting more to be born. Cindy called and said she planned to come up by herself, and Kevin and the boys would join us the next day after they finished work. Then the densest fog rolled in I've ever seen. We couldn't see our house from the deck of Mama's house, even though it's right in the front yard! We called Cindy and told her not to come; it would be dangerous driving over the mountains. So Mama, Daddy, Doug, and I spent a quiet, rainy day at home just sleeping and reading. That evening the fog had lifted, and we went to the Huddle House and ate a big breakfast for supper. It really hit the spot. When we got home, Daddy and Doug watched football while Mama and I lay on the bed and watched "The Sound of Music," which was as good as I remembered it being. While we were lying there, Mama said, "I feel happy. It must be because I have such great children."

"That must be it," I intoned.

"Or maybe it's just having my daughter here with me watching a good movie," she replied.

I loved hearing Mama say that. I don't think her life is very happy anymore, at least not most of the time. She doesn't get to go out much, she can barely walk, it depresses her that she can't do the things she used to do, and she misses all of us. She had a really good weekend, though.

The next day, New Year's Eve, was bright and beautiful, the complete opposite of the day before. Mary Jane called to say she and Mike were on their way up and bringing four baby goats with them. Do I have a crazy family, or what? The goats arrived in a plastic storage box padded with shavings. We celebrated the holiday feeding them with baby bottles. Before that, however, we met Cindy and Kevin and the boys at Crossroads and enjoyed prime rib and celebrated Doug's and Brent's birthdays. We laughed so loudly it's a wonder they didn't throw us out. When we got home and finished feeding the goats, we watched football and waited for the ball to drop, which we toasted with sparkling grape juice from the Biltmore House. It was a lovely way to bring in 2008.

The next morning, Doug and I drove to South Carolina to watch the Sugar Bowl (Go Dawgs!) with our old college buddies, Jim and Elizabeth. Jim had to show off his new 65" TV! Elizabeth had cooked a wonderful supper, and of course, we ate too much just as we did throughout the holidays - and I've got the pounds to prove it! We always love being with the Belchers, and this visit was no exception.

After a big breakfast the next morning, cooked by Jim, we left for home. We had been gone for a week and were ready to get back, though we did stop in Commerce at the outlet malls to spend some of our Christmas money.

I haven't even written about our trip to Asheville, Grove Park Inn, and the Biltmore. The holidays wore us out! But what great fun!