Today in football news, I've only got this to say . . . lots of football players went to bed last night dreaming of defeating their big pigskin rivals. And only half of them will accomplish that fact. But I went to bed dreaming of how to divert you from the cultural expectations of watching these football games on Saturday afternoon. How could I accomplish it? Especially when some of the biggest games of the season are scheduled for today?
The answer, as always, can be found in dreams. For, you see I had another odd dream last night and I have decided to go the extremely lame route of describing that dream to you. (I've done this in the past--though not always in the context of football counter-programming efforts.) Here's hoping that you enjoy it.
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So . . . I'll begin by saying that I believe that I have had this dream before. And that seems odd because this is such a terribly odd dream. But my memory tells me that I've experienced this dream story at least twice before on random nights. Why? Don't know. Could I be mistaking that fact? I guess it's possible. But I don't know why my brain would conjure up this particular tale more than once.
Here's what happens. Some of the details and transitions are probably going to be lacking because, well . . . dreams.
The story begins from the point of view of a youngish girl and her group of friends. But this girl has a secret. She has the ability to fly--or float--or something. Rather than this being a good thing that she would want to excitedly tell her friends, it comes across in the dream as a problem. Something to be ashamed of. Something to stay silent about. And so she does. She doesn't tell people this singular thing about herself. That thing that makes her special and unique. She keeps it to herself and only experiences it in solitude.
The dream portrays this part of the story in several scenes that boil down to what I've told you above. I don't remember each scene beat by beat. And there is probably no logic to it in a dream anyway. But the main point is above and the emotional drive of this part of the dream is the disappointment and the secretiveness.
As with any good story, however, the secret can't stay hidden for long. And her ability to float is discovered. She then faces a choice. To live in society as a floating oddity or to be true to herself and strike out into the larger, unknown world with authenticity. She chooses to float away, leaving behind what she has known. This middle part of the dream is a long shot as she floats uncertainly away, rising higher and higher into the blue sky, moving further away.
And she eventually enters a dark area. Sort of like a floating forest, where she is surrounded by slowly encroaching shapes that block out the blue sky and give visions of uncertainty. Sometimes the shapes in the darkness look like faces. Sometimes they look like cat-like, but misshapen creatures, laying on the tree branches. Eventually, the "forest" surrounds her floating figure so tightly that all light is gone and she is enveloped on blackness.
And then . . . the dream changes dramatically.
We no longer see a girl. We see a man, with a family. A spouse, kids. They are enjoying a normal afternoon, maybe on a weekend, possibly in the summertime. The man--let's call him a husband for lack of a better description--is playing with his young children. Maybe they are in a backyard, on a porch or a patio. But it's very ordinary. Maybe they are preparing a cookout dinner. Or maybe it's nothing so specific.
But the fact of the dream is that the floating girl is inside the man. Is she operating him, like a tiny person driving a very large, mechanical robot? Or is she inhabiting him--ike John Cusack invaded John Malkovich? (But with no ill intent on the floating girl's part?) Or is she simply HIM in an unknown way? A past life? A piece of his soul? Something else unquantifiable? Does he even know that she is in there? Can he catch a glimpse of her deep in his eyes when he sees his reflection in the mirror? The dream suggests that these are possibilities. But the definite truth is impossible to determine.
And that is where the dream ends.
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I'll leave it here and invite you to interpret it in whatever way makes you happy. But remember. All football players dream. And what they dream is unknowable as trying to explain whether your alma mater's coach should go for it when its 4th Down as a long 2 yards with bragging rights on the line. Maybe he dreamt of a good strategy and he is fully confident that it will work. You are not him and you can't know for sure.
Until next week, when I try to convince you NOT to watch conference champtionship games.
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