Saturday, January 25, 2014

THE NIGHT WATCH: AN ESSAY ON DREAMS

Voluptuous … was the zaftig beauty with the kinky hazel hair and jasper eyes, who approached me whilst busking in front of SHOPPERS on Broad.  Even though she was under a thick orange construction parka, I could tell she was voluptuous.  (As lecherous as this seems, I am simply describing a consumer who chose to chat with me in the minus 10 degree weather.)

You want to know what I dream.  She said, not in the form of a question.

Sure, I replied.

I dream about you, she said.

Ha! I replied.  And what do you really dream about?  I asked.

Lots of things actually, she responded.  And I see that you are a BUSKOLOGIST (not that I know what that is) but … does a buskologist interpret dreams?

Yes, a buskologist can interpret dreams.

Yes, a buskologist can interpret dreams.  Anyone can interpret dreams.  However, anyone is not likely to have such an authoritative critique as would a certified buskologist such as myself (this is supposed to be a wry wit, dear reader).

This buskologist began interpreting dreams when he studied Freud.  Of course I studied Freud, in Psychology.  Who doesn’t?  I digress.  Sigmund Freud strongly believed that the content of dreams was related to the wish fulfillment of the dreamer, which the imagery and events in one’s dreams, served to disguise the latent content and unconscious wishes of the dreamer.

Carl Jung believed dreams to be more than Freud’s notion of repressed wishes.  Jung believed a person’s dreams to be a revealing of both the dreamer’s personal and collective unconscious (archetypes), serving to compensate for the parts of our psyche that are underdeveloped in our waking life.

And Calvin Hall believed the traits that people exhibit by day, are the same as those expressed in dreams at night.  And being a fan of Projective Psychology, I quite agree with Calvin Hall.

Projective Psychology is a technique for revealing the hidden motives or underlying personality structures of an individual by the use of ambiguous or unstructured materials, such as ink blots, cloud pictures, or cartoons that encourage spontaneous responses. I shall now create a syllogism ... and suggest then, that dreams, too, for a projective psychologist (and buskologist), are simply spontaneous sleepy-time responses and adventures that reflect  to day-to-day routines and frustrations.

Like I said, anyone can interpret dreams.  Google the internet you’ll gain a wealth of  the purblind and groundling examples from those peddling their books, videos, and workshops.  However, reading further in this particular blog post, you’ll gain a sample of my vade mecum direct from the pages of my personal wetware (brain).  My writing about night watch interpretations I hope is sophisticated, not just scribbles of idle day-dreaming woolgathering.

Well then, here are a couple of my dreams, stated the zaftig one.

I am riding an asteroid through downtown traffic … just me and a pit bull … the pit bull is wearing shades and a tutu. What do you make of this one?

Hmmm, I replied.  An asteroid obviously represents something out of this world, heavenly perhaps.  And you’re with a pit bull … meaning you’re likely fond of dogs.  The pit bull definitely represents someone significant in your life, and that someone is really not open to the world (the shades screening the sunshine) and the tutu represents a feminine side, be it either a male or female.  Since you both are riding this asteroid in downtown traffic suggests that you want this relationship to be very public, so public that you dare to show the world that you are in heaven (metaphorically) with this significant person strongly represented by the pitbull.  And that’s that.

Actually, sounds like it could be true, what you just said, she said.  Here’s my recurring dream.

I’ll be on a playground or in a park about seven or eight years old.  I’m always by the swings.  And I look up in the sky and then I jump straight up and I probably go a few hundred feet up and I’m just stuck up there kinda floating like eventually I do come down but it’s very sudden and frightening.

Any book on dreams will suggest that flying represents a desire to rise above a difficult circumstance.  I tend to agree with this notion and so … here is the meaning of your dream, according to me.

You are longing for the past.  You remember, though your memory may be hazed through romantic nostalgia, that when you were age seven or eight, life was good.  When you were seven or eight you loved to play, and preferably you loved to play at a public playground.  This suggests that you were a gregarious kid, liking very much to be around others.  Could it be that you wanted to be gregarious?  But were too shy to mingle?  And every time you walked over to the playground you were attempting to find some other children to play with but were too shy to express that invitation to anyone?  And could it be that you would stand in the middle then, and pretend to shoot straight up, flying high and looking at the children having fun below.  And could it also be that as soon as your daydream ended, you would be somewhat startled and upset that still, everyone was having fun, everyone except you.
My question to you then is, Why are you longing for the past?  I’m thinking it is that you are longing for an opportunity to redeem yourself, change your nature of the past so you can be that gregarious person now, right in this present adult state.

How’s that? I asked.  Too thick perhaps, I suggested.

No, not too thick, she answered.  Too true perhaps, she said.

The meanings of dreams are certainly abstruse and laden with complexity, though dreaming, itself, is simply one of those universal activities in which all of us may participate.  And I remind you, dear reader ...  
Those selfie-videos you watch in your sleep are those same antics you would do while awake ... provided the consequences were tolerable!
Whitney


Pictured here are Darren, Ray, and Whitney, of the folk band, PHANTOM TIDE.  These are the characters who marched in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this past week.  These pictures were taken during our weekly rehearsal.
Darren and Ray




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