(It’s driving me nuts, not being able to illustrate a post except with video!)
Much of my fiction writing is brewed up in dreams. I have a gift for vivid dreaming. But I had one last night that I’ll be hard put to find a practical use for.
I dreamt that Father Brown came to visit, and Patty and I decided to entertain him by taking him to our favorite place for observing turtles, frogs, and salamanders. In real life this is a railroad cut converted to a kind of park, but in the dream it was much grander, with towering walls, winding streams, high stands of reeds, etc.
I went on ahead in our handy little rowboat while the others stayed to admire something. By and by I spied a turtle trap under the water, so I pulled it up on land to let the turtles out–a red-eared turtle, a painted turtle, and a really fine snapping turtle. “I’ve got to bring him back to Patty and Father Brown and show him off,” I thought: “he’s a real beauty!” And then I’d release him.
Well, the world-famous priest-detective was much impressed by the snapping turtle. Just as the turtle began to calm down, along came Father Brown’s bishop–in full bishop’s regalia, of course: dreams do things their own way–and started berating him for performing Mass for “just a bunch of turtles.” Father Brown had done no such thing, but none of us could get a word in edgewise–the bishop was hopping mad, and going on like gangbusters.
And then I woke up. Drat!
It was such a vivid dream, cobbled together out of familiar elements–a place I know now, a place I knew as a boy, characters from a TV show–cobbled together into something new and rich and strange. It’s similar to what I have to do when I write a fantasy novel. The elements are not new, but the combination is.
And, as we are made in God’s image, I can’t help wondering sometimes–what does God dream?
Whoa! That is a peculiar dream but dreams are where our minds get to relax and play. I used to keep a notebook bedside to record vivid dreams but I haven’t done that in a while.
The whole first chapter of “The Last Banquet” was a dream I had.
Perhaps…God’s first dream was of the glory of His first manifestation, Lucifer, who proved to be a nightmare. God’s second dream was a fruitful world begun by a God-fearing, righteous and faithful couple – Adam and Eve, who failed. God’s third dream was His manifestation in His Son Jesus to whom he entrusted our salvation – this dream isn’t finished yet although It Is Written. So, perhaps God does NOT dream…because he doesn’t need to.
Your dream…the frustration of injustice that will always be (until Jesus returns) is enough to wake us from our dreams – as it should be. Writers, champions, believers in truth and cognition, all suffer the slings of the unjust unreality that pervades modern society, including the Church. “Drat” you say. It would have become a terribly fretful dream if it had continued and you had NOT awakened. PS: Again, thanks for sharing.