A Broken Sliding Glass Door: Concluding Post

Dear readers, once again, I apologize for the inconsistent postings. My life is full of many activities at the moment, and I will have to write my posts whenever I have the opportunity.

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 photo coutesy of expressglassfl.com

A checker at my grocery store told me about an incident where her two young sons, during a squabble, hit a sliding glass door with a magnet and shattered the glass.

This checker is a person who has never dealt with dreams before, and she has never even heard of the concept of the waking dream. Her reactions—largely incredulous—are not surprising. What follows is the main part of our conversation.

Dreamer:  This is really weird.

David:  How so?

Dreamer:  I mean, it’s like hocus pocus. You know, like something out of a horror movie.

David:  Really?

Dreamer:  Well, I mean, just the idea of trying to make a connection between my kid throwing a magnet and then coming up with all this stuff about me and other strange things like that "sphere-puller" thing. I mean, it sounds like something straight out of Harry Potter.

David:  Do you identify with anything in your waking dream experience?

Dreamer:  Well, that’s the creepiest part of the whole thing, because the answer is yes.

David:  Would you like to talk about it?

Dreamer:  It’s back to that "sphere-puller" thing again. I mean I think that’s referring to something in my personality. My friends will all tell you that I like to be the center of attention. If I walk into a room with people, it’s not long before they’re standing around me. And if they’re not, I know that I can change that. I can actually change how people behave at a party. It’s kind of a power trip, really.

David:  What do you think the dream is saying about that?

Dreamer:  I get the feeling that it doesn’t much like it.

David:  Do you think it has a point?

Dreamer:   Well, sometimes I wonder about it. I mean, what I do is really subtle, and people don’t even know it’s happening. Maybe that’s not OK.

David:  Well, if someone else started to manipulate you without your knowing it, how would you feel?

Dreamer:  I guess it depends on what they were trying to do to me. I mean, geeze, it’s just a party, right?

David:  If one of your sons started to do something you felt was wrong, but it was just a little innocent thing—not important—would you stop him anyway?

Dreamer:  Yeah, probably.

David:  So is it OK to manipulate people even if they’re just at a party?

Dreamer:  This talk is making me feel jittery.

David:  You mean, our conversation?

Dreamer:  Yeah. I don’t like it. I think I’m just going back to being a checker at my grocery store. I’m gonna let my boys be my boys and their magnets be their magnets. We got a guy coming to replace the glass, and then it’ll all be over. But it was nice meeting you anyway. And by the way, pickles are on sale next week.

Reflections

Not everyone is ready to make the metaphysical leap that dream work requires. As I mentioned earlier, I usually don’t engage people in conversations about dreams unless they approach me first. But she volunteered the story about the glass broken by a magnet, and I thought it might be worth a try.