Tell Me About Your Mother...

My mom showed up in a dream the other night. Unlike most of her appearances she wasn't in a particularly good mood, and certainly didn't have her usual kind appearance. But then I knew it was a dream and that means it wasn't she, but what she represents.

My dreams lately have had a few twists. Some new motifs have emerged and they give credence to the theory that as we age, our dream content changes. Still the teacher dreams continue. But now, I have not retired. I only indicated I did, and in the dreams I will teach this year and then retire. What's the message? That we never stop teaching?

I'm always removed in these re-teaching dreams. I'm always at another school with some classes I like and then one that I never seem to give adequate attention to. When I finally find where that class meets (I frequently forget in the dreams) I'm relieved to find that I'm such a professional that I can flawlessly launch into something meaningful-a seamless continuity.

And then there is the matter of trying to get back to some place. A rather frequent motif these days. I'm either at a hotel, or trying to get to a college campus, or sometimes living back in Texas and trying to find my old neighborhood. Whenever I begin to return to wherever it is I need to go, I seem to get farther away; it's like trying to exit a maze but then realizing that there is a maze within the maze.

Since I removed myself from the daily grind, waking at 5:45 am and crashing somewhere between 10 and 11:00 pm, I seem to be having more dreams. Although I awake most days between 7 and 8 am with an occasional earlier or later day, it makes me wonder how having more dream time affects my mental health. Surely it must be a good thing to have more REM sleep.

Since I seem to be lucid in many of these recurrent motifs, I'm going to conjure up another meeting with my mom. I'll see if I can arrange for her to meet me in one of the places I can't seem to return to. If I can pull this off, I'm sure we'll both be in better spirits. You can take the preceding line any way you want to.

Comments

To a Tee

I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt. They are the foundational garment of my life. My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one. Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business. You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed. You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport. Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt. Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt. Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices. Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been. I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed. ...

Body Language

I'm sitting there in a hospital gown, waiting for my doctor to complete my yearly physical. This is when I look at everything on the walls, read the medical posters, the instructions on any equipment in the room, look in every corner and behind every chair. I study the paper on the examination table, laugh out loud at the picture of a smiling child holding a bouquet of broccoli, and the note the placement of the computer in the room. Finally, wondering if the gown I'm wearing is on correctly, I focus on myself. At this point in my life I'm fairly comfortable in a doctor's office. But it always seems to take so long when waiting for the doc to enter. So I fidget. Then I begin a tour of myself. Scars are tattoos. I look at the one on my knee and see myself at 12. Whittling a piece of wood with my Boy Scout jack knife. The blade slips and I cut a crescent slash through my jeans and into my flesh for life. 50 years later ...

Sex, Religion, and Politics

Watching TV to keep up with the news is like going to a party. Sex, religion and politics, in any order. Those are the topics of choice. We hear about "twerking," and are confronted with all manner of exhibitionism in local news. Should women be wearing yoga pants in non-yoga areas. The office, the workplace, school, church...and that's just the teachers! Religion encroaches in all the right places. Christian Mingle, the online dating service pops up on the screen during the grisliest of crime shows, the politician's speeches and the sit-coms so full of sexual innuendo that every second of canned laughter barely hides the grins, the gasps, the outcries, or the mindless guffaws. So what's the message? Are we a society and culture in decline or just rapidly changing? Probably both. I recall a student once coming to school with a most offensive tee shirt. Offensive in that the cartoon image on the front made it impossible for hi...

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