A while back, I had a dream that I was attending an event held by an author. I woke up with the recognition that everything in the dream was my actual creation.
I mean, it seems obvious, right? But this dream pushed a lot of my buttons.
The main character was a pastiche of successful women I know. In real life, these women write books and host parties to launch them and have broad networks of people to invite. The dress nicely, find energy for their projects, and all the things that I pretty much don’t do.
The dream book was beautifully designed in sections. The shape was square and thin, but I saw the page numbers and it went up to 515, at least.
The colors were blues and matte gold and it was richly illustrated with drawings, photos and diagrams. One section with blue pages had instructions for building something; another section had instructions for an activity. The golden section was a neatly typeset story. There was a section of nearly blank pages with only a bit of decoration around the edges, and one section was a series of “famous quotations” of some sort.
At the event, guest were invited to interact with the book by picking one of the quotations and rewriting it or somehow altering it. I remember I couldn’t find one that hadn’t been written on yet. I thought I’d see what was on page 555 and do something there, but the book ended before that.
The blank pages had been filled by kids writing their own quotes and playing a game. I passed the book to someone else without writing in it. Later I picked it up again and made some marks in it, just for the sake of having completed the task.
The author floated around the party to around to greet everyone and make sure they were enjoying themselves. She welcomed me with a blank warmth that told me she didn’t quite remember who I was.
Which was a little bit odd, considering that I was wearing an outfit she had created. She had designed overalls especially for me and sent three versions of to my house. They were made up in luxe fabrics – green and gold brocade, black burned velvet, and green twill with a fancy trim. They were cut beautifully at the back, fit well and had good pockets, including an especially clever two-way pocket for a cell phone.
I woke at 5:55 and realised I could be the author of that book. I could be be the designer of these overalls. They were my ideas, in my dream.
But a month has passed and I haven’t written the book or sewn the overalls. Like most dream ideas, they seem a bit too big in the real world.
dream images by Gemini
