A few nights back I dreamed that Star Trek: The Next Generation was back on the air. Season eight picked up where the series left off, as if the films had never happened - by and large, a wise creative choice, continuity notwithstanding. Strangely, the renewal aired without any advertising or fanfare at all, and in Edmonton the show starts at 1 in the morning. So I faithfully watched, and to my delight, it was excellent; it was like every episode was as at least as good as original classics like "The Inner Light" or "The Best of Both Worlds," some even as good as modern-day Battlestar Galactica. The production design had improved significantly, too, and the actors hadn't aged at all.
I was disappointed when I woke up, as is usual with dreams of simple comforts. Perhaps the stress of middle adulthood brought me back to my late teens and early twenties, when I had fewer responsibilities and it was easier to escape to new worlds and new civilizations.
2 comments:
Your dream sounds normal enough to me. I ran across this Jungian thought a while back, and it seems appropriate:
"[In dreams,] the ego is the part of us that assesses our external reality, but if we are not careful the need for an inner rightness - and exaggerated need for fantasy - can overtake this reality. Developing objective self-criticism, observation of our fantasies and patience, can create a balance."
Looks like you have all of the bases covered, Earl. Still, if you or Sylvia feel that the pressures of your life are too burdensome, don't forget that you can drop any of your friends a line, and we'd all be glad to to anything to help.
I am going to disagree with you regarding the idyllic nature of our post-teenager lives. I do think that was a very special time, and there were a lot of great people in our lives at that time, and many wonderful things did happen. But it wasn't stress-free! University was a big pressure, and I very much remember feeling a lot of responsibility towards my classes, as well as a very large responsibility to "do good for the future". Now that I am out from school, I feel that pressure a lot less, and since were are living in our own future, those worries are in the past.
Still, when I dream about those times, I don't dream about Star Trek, I dream about lots of long, maze-like hallways, forms that must be filled out in triplicate and delivered to the correct Dean's Office, classes that I've missed the entire term for and must decide if I will drop the class or write the exam without studying, stuff like that.
Oh, I have those dreams too...make no mistake. I missed one crucial class in junior high, making my degree invalid, and I have to start all over again in grade 7. Or, like you, I've missed every class of a particular university course and don't even realize that I've made a huge mistake until I'm sitting in the exam room. Or I've forgotten my calendar, and don't know which classes I have, where or when.
Still seems pretty simple in retrospect. But then, problems that once loomed large fade into triviality with time.
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