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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Who Needs Dreams When There’s So Much Reality to Choose From?

I rarely dream. While others recount their dreams to others – sometimes at an uncomfortable level of detail – I’ve got nothing to say.

At this point, I’ll leave you alone for a moment to let the idea of me, speechless, sink in.

Perhaps my “dreamer” is broken. My mother, after all, claims to have lost her “skip”.

Then again, while I fully expect that my mother could, at one time, skip, I’ve never been one for remembering my dreams.

Everyone, I am told, dreams; it’s just a matter of whether or not we remember them. And I’m thinking, well if I’m not remembering them, what’s to say I had them in the first place? Huh? Answer me that one!

So what’s it all about, Alfie?

Is it because my conscious life is just so darn fulfilling?

It’s true that I have a fabulous view of downtown Minneapolis – if you lean over and look right there you can see the garbage incinerator for the whole metropolitan area!

It’s true that I once alphabetized my canned goods just for the fun of it.

It’s also true that I am just this far away from being able to whistle something identifiable. (I am always amazed by whistlers.)

It’s even true that I can often get a late-night snack just by planting the seed a good 45 minutes before I’d like one, ala “Do we have any chocolate?” knowing full well that we don’t. (And yes, I know that is lousy of me, but if Willie would just quit resisting the idea of buying me an Errand-Running Monkey, he wouldn’t have to do it; so really, he brings it on himself. But that’s another blog.)

Anyway, I still have my “skip”, which I suppose is something (in your face, Mom!); but I can’t help but wonder if I’m missing out by not remembering my dreams.

34 comments:

rtju said...

I hear ya sister.

I very, very rarely remember my dreams.

One of the few that has stuck with me over the years is the one where some people, we don't know who, wanted me to go study polar bears. They told me to get in that row boat, yes that one there, and paddle up river and go study polar bears.

I kept telling them that I knew nothing about surviving in the arctic and that I would die. They did no believe me and just kept telling me to get in the boat and go study the polar bears.

I do not remember how it all ended, but I do remember that somebody badly wanted me to study polar bears, did I mention that they were polar bears they wanted me to study?

IB said...

I lost my skip the same day I lost my hop and jump. I have picked up in there stead a groan, an ache, a twinge and a slouch.

Dreams freak me out. I'm glad I don't remember them often. Those that I do recall make me think I'm nutz.

MJenks said...

The fact that you haven't dropped over dead and/or that you remember things proves that you reach a state of REM every night during your sleep cycles. REM is when dreams happen, so you're having them, you just don't remember them.

Pearl said...

mbuna, hmmmm. Go study the polar bears, you say. And what does this MEAN to you?

IB, sorry to hear about your skip/hop/jump deficit and that you've made up for it by accumulating aches and groans. I'm totally against that.

iNDefatigable, but why, do you suppose, some people remember and some do not? The only ones I seem to remember are the ones where my teeth break off or monsters chase me in slow motion...

Steve said...

Are you an android by any chance? I recommend you read some Philip K Dick before bedtime... ;-)

Pearl said...

Steve! Bladerunner! I so loved that movie. Well, I so loved Harrison Ford (at that time, anyway) and Oooh what was her name, the one that played Rachel... Hmmm. She was in Dune, too. Kinda nuts, kinda gorgeous...
Pearl

rtju said...

Sean Young.

Bladerunner is an awesome movie.

Pearl said...

Sean Young!!! Of course!
Thanks, mbuna!

Douglas said...

Pearl, a dream is simply the subconscious manifestation of hopes and fears (mostly fears, I suspect) and helps ease the psychic pressure. You have an obviously active imagination, evidenced by your wonderful writings, so you are already working these things out on a more conscious level. Either that, or you don't remember your dreams out of a very tangible possibility they would drive you to the madhouse.

But I am no psychiatrist. My best dreams, which I relish, are H. Bosch style things which come in the midst of high fevers and flus.

Kim said...

I tend to remember the bad dreams. I want to know where the good ones are?

Bee said...

I like the idea of "a skip" -- as long as it is still in action, of course. (Now In England, a skip is a big garbage can. Like a dumpster? Can't think of the American word. Maybe you lost your dreams there?)

Sometimes I remember my dreams, usually the weird ones, in incredibly specific detail; and sometimes I've got nuthin'.

Sandi said...

You are missing out for sure! I tramp around all night long in my dreams, I sleep with strangers and people I know. I sleep with women and men and usually blog about it in my sleep. I live a wild life in the night and I never ever have to pay for my sins in the morning.

Eskimo Bob said...

Aerosmith: Dream On

Irish Gumbo said...

How about an Errand-Running Lemur? Longer tails, and funnier looking than the average monkey.

I dream too much, and it sometimes spills out onto the pillows. Or the page. Gotta go somewhere, yeah?

My skip is around here somewhere, probably in the hall closet behind the washer fluid and old cooler.

And "in your face, Mom!" Woo, such a competitive streak!

Pearl said...

Douglas, that made me think of how much I enjoy that space between awake and asleep... I try to stay there for as long as possible.

Under the Influence, I can rattle off a number of nightmares I've had in my life, but I agree: where are the good ones?

Bee, I'm going to be bilingual yet! Didn't know that one -- although it is an interesting concept, all my dreams in the skip...

Sandi, and how nice is that, to get all your sinning out of the way and in an entirely blameless way!

Eskimo Bob, Night in the Ruts?

IG, the "in your face, Mom!" thing is just something that I think sounds funny, like saying it to a toddler or anyone else it would be just bad form to say that to... I actually skipped just a couple weeks ago, the last time the streets weren't covered in ice. Have you skipped lately?! It's goofy as hell but great exercise!

Vic said...

I only remember my dreams if I am not sleeping soundly just before I wake up in the morning. Then it's like someone let crazy off the leash.

Pearl said...

Vic, am enjoying the thought of crazy, off-the-leash dreams...

Michelle said...

No Pearly-Q you are not missing out not remembering your dreams. Because most dreams make absolutely no sense whatsoever and then you would spend the entire day trying to figure out what your odd dream meant....And you wouldn't get anything else done!

So, NO you are not missing out!!!

HAPPY HUMP DAY!!!

Orion said...

i don't dream. the last time i had a dream that i can account for was when i was 13 and i ended up in therapy... it was a reoccurring dream that no one could tell me anything about.

blah blah blah... it's better this way anyways. that way i really do know when i'm eating a spider in my sleep.

Pearl said...

Michelle, you know what?! You're right!

Orion, spiders in my sleep. I've been assuming lately that the cat's ass I generally have in my face has been keeping the spiders at bay, but I'll bet those little bast*rds are in cahoots...

De Campo said...

Blasted! I hate coming to the comments late only to see that a Bladerunner reference has been used!

Have you ever say “in my wildest dreams” knowing full well that you’re just telling a blatant lie? I’m picturing all these past characters from your life reading this blog and being utterly heartbroken by deceit.

Pseudo said...

Are you a sound sleeper? Because I'm like vic, I remember the ones from just before I wake up.

Unknown said...

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams".

Maybe you are just sleep whistling?

Peace - Rene

fingers said...

Well at least you're not a dreary burden on your boy.
Nothing worse than hearing a chick bang on about the dream she had last night, then asking you what it might mean (post-inspiration light-bulb just flickered...).
It's duller than listening to a hippie talk about the tab of acid he took last weekend...

Pearl said...

de Campo, what's really cool, though, is that I had never considered that my dream-lacking might be due to my being a replicant.
Hmmm. Past lives? I've always thought I once participated in a mad chaotic rush from a city, something war-like and horrible, but I've never dreamt of it.
Or have I?

Pseudonymous,hmm. Possible. Seems the only ones I remember are terrifying, sit-straight-up-in-bed nightmares or just hanging-out-with-friends or vacation-style dreams as the alarm goes off...

Rene, is that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?!
Sleep whistling. :-) I like that.

fingers, or as bad as listening to someone drone on about what a great athlete they were in highschool. Yeesh. Had to back away from that one the other day...

Anonymous said...

I tend to dream only when I'm overly tired, and it's kind of 50/50, sometimes I remember, othertimes, not at all! Enjoyed your post.

♥ Braja said...

I'm awaiting yet another post on the errand running monkey. Really. It is required.

Old Knudsen said...

I recently did a post about dreams and the afterlife. The kind of dreams you have are a taste of yer afterlife as the dream world is the real one.
It was all very deep I'm sure.

Captain Smack said...

Funny, I was going to refer you to Knudsen's post, but he beat me to it. Here's the link, so you don't have to scroll around reading all his other crap.

I'm not sure how it all works, but having no conscious connection to your dream world strikes me as a very bad sign. Unless you're one of those people who are so integrated that the dream world and the real world are one and the same... but people like that generally get locked away in our society, and you seem like you're probably glued together a little tighter than that.

Hell, I don't know what to tell you. Do some peyote, see if that helps.

Meg said...

You apparently aren't on an anti-depressant because they give one bad dreams. But just wait. There's still time.

The Jules said...

It's probably a software fault.

Have you tried turning your dreamer off and then on again?

Pearl said...

Kareer Woman, nice to meet you!

Braja, I've written down that I need to write again on the untapped potential of errand-running monkeys. :-)

Old Knudsen, hey! I've gone looking for you a number of times and your site was gone. What the? OK. I'm going to look again. Sounds interesting.

Captain Smack, I like where this is going. Read the Castenada books in high school. Wonder how the peyote traffic is in Mpls...

Prefers Her Fantasy Life,
:-) There IS still plenty of time, isn't there?!

Pearl said...

The Jules, excellent idea. I never considered rebooting!

MJenks said...

As for who remembers them and who doesn't...I dunno. Genetics, maybe? Are we still using that to blame everything? Yeah, we'll go with that.