MindsBase

I had a dream last night that one of my friends’ family was coming to visit me (on a tropical island where I lived) when I got a phone call saying that they had all been killed in a plane crash.

In the dream, I sunk to my knees and began to sob. Then I shook myself awake, out of the dream, but I still felt racked with emotion and guilt for inviting her to visit me on my island.

Couldn’t shake the feeling all morning. Don’t you hate that?

But its interesting, isn’t it, what things come out of our subconscious minds and how they affect our lives. I wonder what worries, or expectations, or preconditions we carry around with us that impair our ability to be happy and successful? If my worries are leaking into a dream, they must be somewhere buried inside me. And they probably have nothing to do with worries about plane crashes or this particular friend. Dreams — mine, at least — are abstract at least, and metaphorical at most…

Or maybe I’m just playing out story ideas while off-the-clock.

Here’s an LA Times post about the significance of dreams >>

I love reading myths and legends. Wanna know why?

1. I enjoy the similarities between the stories of ancient peoples — in spite of their living in differing societies.

2. Myths are so rich in symbolism!

While the Greek and Roman myths get a lot of airtime, I particularly enjoy other ancient myths such as Asian or American Indian folklore.

This Nisqually Legend is a great one:

Long ago, people ate all the fish and game and so started eating each other. This was wickedness, so the Changer sent a flood to the earth.

Only one woman and one dog survived and repeopled the earth, but those people were primative, walking on four legs and living in holes in the earth. The had no tools or clothes.

Then, a giant bear with hypnotic powers came and started eating everyone.

So the Changer sent a Spirit Man with a face like the sun who also had powers. The Spirit Man modernized the people with techniques for fire and tools and clothing, after he taught them to walk on two legs.

He also told them that there were two powerful spirits, one good, one evil, and the Good Spirit had sent him.

He then went about the task of killing the bear (using seven arrows, symbolic of completeness) and doling out the valuable skin.

Then, Spirit Man made a house with one door and put all the disease and evil deeds inside it, then tasked the head man of a certain family to protect and never open the door. Generations later, only one old man, his wife and his daughter were the guardians. One day while he was away, the man’s daughter peeked inside the door and so let out all the sorrows of the world.

Stories help unite a people. Help them speak a common tongue. It makes you wonder — what are the stories that unite us as a people, as well as tying us together with the rest of humanity, past and present?

And, are we losing these common stories?