Elizabeth Coatsworth once said, “When I dream, I am ageless.”
Dreaming is essentially imagining the unimaginable, obtaining the unattainable and breaking the boundary of what is real and what is not. I know when I dream, most of the time I’m aware of the fact that I’m dreaming, but in most cases I’ll tune out that awareness and let the events of my dream unfold.
I know for a fact that my dreams are engaging to the point where they have plotlines, drama and foreshadowing. Alot of this has to do with my imagination and on a scale of 1 to 100, my imagination would fall somewhere around 99. Ever since I was little I’ve had an active imagination. Not necessarily to the point where I was interacting with imaginary people, but I could turn a somber or dull moment into an exciting adventure.
For instance, when I was younger I’d sometimes hide in the closet, close my eyes tightly and imagine I was traveling through space at lightspeed. In my mind I’d see stars, comets and galaxies speeding by my peripheral vision and when I’d open my eyes I was no longer in the closet but drifting in space.
I’m sure you’ve met people in your lifetime that reveal their lack of an imagination, or it was something that diminished quickly when they became an adult. I’d like to believe that everyone, no matter their age, has an imagination but it’s the degree at which it flourishes that makes a difference.
When you dream, your imagination takes over and takes you far beyond anything that you could visit or experience in reality. I’ve never been to Venice, Italy nor have I climbed Mauna Loa in Hawaii or walked along the edge of the Nile but I’ve seen photographs and documentaries to the point where in my mind I can basically form an image or experience and visit these places in my dreams. You could argue that dreaming about an experience is incomparable to the actual, physical experience and I’d agree with you, but until I’m actually there dreaming about it is the next best thing.
My dreams are often ruined by my quest for their meaning. If, in a dream, my dad is trying to shoot a giant green lizard on top of my house but my brother keeps getting in the way of the clean shot — does it mean I’m going to die?
I just don’t know. It almost sucks the fun out of the dream.
Charlie: I think I also try to deconstruct my dreams for meaning, but most times come up empty handed. The other night I dreamt that I was leaping over rooftops (yeah, like in The Matrix) and at one point I fell to my death.
I remember thinking, “What the?” and the next moment I was on a subway in New York City.
Everybody has a different way of dreaming, too, I think. While I sometimes float away to places that I’ve only imagined before, that’s usually while I’m awake. Frankly, I don’t remember most of the dreams that I have while sleeping. Then again, I don’t get a lot of sleep, so most of my sleep is heavy, not REM.
I guess that I try to turn my life into a quest for dreams. The same people that lack the imagination to takes themselves to another place in dreams tend to lack the confidence to try to achieve distant places in life. I am criticized sometimes for being too ‘optimistic,’ yet I will always claim that there’s no reason to be pessimistic — living dreams is merely a state of being unafraid of failure. Achieving that state imparts confidence. Sometimes I think that plucking ‘dreamers’ out of a crowd is as easy as looking at the expression on their face.
It’s good to live in a world full of imagination.
Do you think imagination is voluntary or chosen?
It is interesting what you can take with you in your dreams. For instance, knowledge of course you have, but also physical imperments find their way in. For instance, without my contacts or glasses I am legally blind. Can’t see a thing. So when I sleep with my contacts out, I can’t see in my dreams. But when I sleep with them in (don’t tell my eye doctor) I can see just fine.
Just finished an excellent book series about dreams. Fiction, of course, about a man who enters an alternate reality whenever he falls asleep. The trick is, which one is real. It’s quite good. The first book is called Black. The series is by Ted Dekker.
I always, always, always dream that I am smoking again. Granted, I’m burning one with a talking, flying fish, but still. I can feel that sensation of taking smoke into my lungs, the smell of tobacco again, like I’ve been doing it my whole life. I quit about 5 years ago now.
Hmm. This morning, in the 15 minutes between hitting the snooze button and my alarm going off again, I dreamt I was visiting New York City and I was trying to find my way to the airport to catch a plane to Alaska to meet a friend (I don’t have any friends in Alaska, so I’m not really sure where that came from). The only problem was that I couldn’t read the language on *any* of the signs, and no one spoke English. I woke up all stressed out…my dreams can be very vivid, and I rarely realize that I’m dreaming in the midst of the dream.
Clay: I’d have to say that my imagination is chosen, for the reason that personally I feel the imagination is an important aspect of life. It doesn’t matter what age your at, you shouldn’t dismiss the notion of having an imagination because it can take you places you’ve never been before and for the artist or creator allows you to create something unique and visionary.
Scott: I think I’ll scout the local Barnes and Noble for the book you’re talking about. It sounds interesting.
Max: A talking, flying fish? Sounds like something from a Tim Burton dream. Also, I think it’s cool you’ve been off the smokes for so long. I’d think that quitting smoking is right up there with locking your liquor cabinet, for some it’s difficult but for others it’s rewarding.
Paul: I live in New York and yet I’ve never been to NYC. People assume because I mention that I live in New York that I’m living in a well-heated New York City loft and that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I think it’s along the same lines of someone thinking California is all desert or that Florida or Lousiana is covered in swamp land. Granted, before I moved to New York, it never registered with me that there was both a New York City and the State of New York.