Dreams—

Either we have no dreams
or our dreams are interesting.

We should learn to arrange
our waking life
the same way:
nothing or interesting.

–excerpt The Gay Science, Book 3, Section 232 by Friedrich Nietzsche

Lately I hardly dream.  Where does a dream belong?  Are dreams the visitation of a god?  A message from the universe, to say the same thing in a contemporary fashion…  Some of our ancestors seem to have thought so.  When the conscious mind is quiet,  how does a message form in the basement, you know in that dark place where the monsters live?

I dreamed.  I saw myself in a dimly illuminated workshop, tools strewn all around.  The workbench surface was covered with metal shavings that had fallen from a nearby drill press.  I bent down to place disorganized tools into a metal toolbox.  A paper dixie cup tipped over that I failed to notice.  As if in slow motion mixture of silvery liquid and metal shavings spilled from the cup puddling across the floor.  I grabbed a discarded rag, in panic to corral the spilled liquid.  The light of recognition dawned, -I was exposing my bare hand to a toxic substance.  The upshot of the dream: my right hand, bit by bit turned black, the consequence of mercury poisoning…

With the moment of recognition I awakened.  I wonder if close to the edge of waking, reacting to the horror of the dream, did I wretch myself awake?  The least I would say about the dream: that was interesting!

There are some dreams from which I cannot awaken.  The wildfire season in Canada affects me, and there will be a wildfire season in California which is closer to home.

The chaos of war in Ukraine is my business.  Human beings slaughter one another, the innocent included, some with American, with German and British weapons because a craven tyrant is obsessed to colonize their country.  The Ukrainian resistance mirrors my own resistance to oppression.

And Trump the tar-baby-of-our-time, once more is a focus of attention.  This time with a federal indictment, he hunkers down, again to play the aggrieved victim.

Pat Robertson, the grinning joker-like, Evangelical television conman died on June 8th.  How many sacrificed time and funds to follow this hustler?

There’s much toxic material around.  We do what we can to clean up.

A hand turns black…