What dreams do you dream that keep you up at night? Do you dream of a car that glistens or a dog that listens? Or maybe you dream that work days are shorter and vacations are longer? It wasn’t all that long ago that aspirations of obtaining life’s finer things consumed many of my hour’s between dusk and dawn. Even dreams of world domination, hypothetically speaking, robbed me of a night or two. What if it’s not the dreams that keep me awake at night? What if there is something more?
Mr. Mitty; Mr…
A few months back I was told by a man in a white lab coat that I might want to consider a mobility aid to help me move around more safely when I’m awake at night. It wasn’t exactly what I expected to hear. The “Walter Mitty” in me will still take me to places where I am ageless, fearless, and even walk with a swagger; unappealing as it was to so many. It’s easy to see how Mitty could find excitement in buying a rollator. He would equip his with all the weaponry he needed to fight injustice, not just help him get to the refrigerator. Maybe, I will be lucky and find an off-lease model equipped with James Bond-style gadgets and the sex-appeal of a new Benz or a 7-series. It is an injustice if I can’t reach the refrigerator.
It is Mitty’s imagination that takes him to places where he is larger than life, and everything around him blurs into his make-believe world. But Walter can’t stay in his make-believe world forever. Sooner, rather than later someone will, unwittingly, take him back from the exciting places that his mind has taken him. Whether it’s the voice of an angry parking attendant, or his wife yelling at him to stop driving too fast, there is always an unwelcome intruder that jolts him back to reality.
She Knows
I wonder what my lovely wife knows of the dreams I dream at night? On more than one occasion, it felt like I was the olive in a martini mixer, both shaken and stirred. I wonder if she knows that in the dreams I dream, the dragons I battle die quicker and my days with her last longer? I wonder if she knows that if I can hold on just a little longer, I will finish off the trolls that taunt me once and for all? Does she know in the dreams I dream…it is she that I am fighting to protect; that I’m not on the couch but asleep next to her?
Order Up!
Both our dreams and our imagination are powerful; they can free us to envision a world where the possibilities are endless, the liquor is cheap and the ice cream is free. We *can be* the hero in an engaging story. Do you dream of a new day with an original story to tell or do you prefer to relive a chapter in a story that is already written? What would Walter do?
But there was always someone, disconnected from Mitty’s world, that would pop into Walter’s and take him back to reality. At times, an unwelcome tap on the shoulder or a street-vendor yelling in his ear would yank him back home. Do we really need someone to bring us back home, someone who has no idea where we are or where we have been, to tap us on the shoulder to tell us that our French Fries are ready?
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
I know the dreams she dreams at night; dreams that our years together will be many and our home is full, dreams that my gait is rhythmic and my arms swing freely. In her dreams, the aisles I walk our daughters down aren’t lined with groceries or mobility aids. Dare to dream, Darling — dare to dream!
What are the dreams you dream at night? At one point did you dream of leaving your mark and now worry that you are running out of runway and might even miss your chance to be a “one-hit-wonder?” Or are you like me? You still dream of a life filled with achievements, maybe each a little smaller or less grandiose, but each in their way shaping the world in the way that you think it should be.
What are the dreams you dream that keep you up at night?
Is it the dreams you dream that keep you up at night, or are you awake because you are one of the few, a misfit, that find the waking hours are much more engaging than the dreams you dream?
“I got them, thanks, buddy.”
Thanks for reading, liking, and sharing,
Ivy is still asleep, on her back with all fours in the air. It sounds like she is enjoying a dream of her own — probably playing, Go Fish with her new BFF, the Geezer.
Al and his faithful, but napping sidekick, Ivy the wonder pup.
I thought you were asleep, Ivy. Sure, you can have my French Fries.
It is good to be back, Ivy!