Dreamways

The newspaper photo captures everything that Americans wanted to believe about the Iraq war in the earliest days of the invasion in 2003. A U.S. Army medic, Pfc. Joseph Dwyer, whose unit was fighting its way up the Euphrates to Baghdad, cradles a wounded Iraqi boy. The child is half-naked and helpless, but trusting. Private Dwyer’s face is strained but calm. The text accompanying the photo describes the power of this image. “If there are better images of the strength and selflessness of the American soldier, I can’t think of any.  read more »

“Vilnius is a city of dreams.” This compelling assertion appears in an article about the capital city of Lithuania (“Vilnius: Dreaming with Eyes Wide Open,” Baltic Outlook, October/November 2007). Indeed, both Lithuania and its capital have had a number of major dreams come true, with significant goals realized and long-held ideals made manifest.  read more »

"The practice of equanimity is particularly helpful for nightmares. Of all the practices you could apply, it is most helpful and comforting, after you have awakened, to generate a sense of equanimity – the similarity of aim – between yourself and the dream-monster.“ Jeffrey Hopkins offers a Buddhist, meditative perspective on interacting with sleep nightmares ("Dealing with Nightmares,“ Snow Lion newspaper & catalog, Spring 2008).
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The post-waking-nightmare dream was grandiose. "In March 2007, city officials finally unveiled their plan to redevelop New Orleans and begin the move out of the post-hurricane morass. It was billed as the plan to end all plans, with Paris-like streetscape renderings and promises of parks, playgrounds and 'cranes on the skyline' within months." However, more than a year later, it seems that the dream has not gained much waking-life traction, as reported by Adam Nossiter in  read more »

"You cannot hear the name Martin Luther King Jr. and not think of death. For as famous as he may have been in life, it is death that ultimately defined him.“ So begins an essay written by Michael Eric Dyson on the 40th anniversary of King’s death in April 4, 1968 ("The Burdens of Martyrdom: Death distorted the true legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. – Why the turbulence of his life is what matters today“, Time Magazine, 07 Apr 08). The author connects a figure who is famous for having a Dream is inextricably to Death.

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"Finding guilt-free food for our menus – food that’s clean, green and humane – is about as easy as securing a housing loan. And we’re suddenly paying more - 75 percent more in the last six years – to stock our pantries. Around the world, from Cairo to Port-au-Prince, increases in food prices have governments facing riots born of shortage and hunger.“ This is the waking nightmare recounted by Dan Barber in his article "Change We Can Stomach“ (The New York Times, 11 May 08).

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Bats, those bizarre flying creatures associated with dark Transylvanian nights and vampires are under siege. "Al Hicks was standing outside an old mine in the Adirondacks, the largest bat hibernaculum, or winter resting place, in New York State. It was broad daylight in the middle of winter, and bats flew out of the mine about one a minute. Some had fallen to the ground where they flailed around on the snow like tiny wind-broken umbrellas, using the thumbs at the top joint of their wings to gain their balance.  read more »

"The War Endures, But Where’s the Media?“ asks the headline atop Richard Perez-Pena’s The New York Times article (24 Mar 08). His question initiates an exploration of a disturbing waking nightmare connected to the ongoing nightmare that is the war in Iraq. Five years after the invasion, "the United States remains at war in Iraq, but there are days when it would be hard to tell from a quick look at television news, newspapers and the Internet.“

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"Results of a grand jury investigation released Monday show that an Orange County [CA] sheriff’s deputy watched the TV show 'Cops' and sent 22 personal text messages while jail inmates beat a fellow prisoner to death.“ This darkly humorous waking dream was reported in The Denver Post ("Probe finds staff laziness, but no misconduct, in jail death,“ 08 Apr 08).

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