Dreams

When I lay in bed to go to sleep sometimes, I'll be like half asleep and my mind starts drifting, and that's when it happens. I'll start to think about something, I mean like something real that actually really happened, or a physical thing that actually, physically exists in the real, actual, physical universe. (Ok, if someone reading this doesn't get what I'm saying so far, then chances are you aren't going to, because that's as clearly as I can put that.) So, I'm thinking about something that's real, like something I am planning to do, or someone I know, or sometimes even just a TV show I like. But then I start thinking things like, "This one thing I'm thinking about is just like this OTHER THING," or "It's too bad that my life won't be the same once THIS THING happens," or "I wish things were the same now as when they were THIS WAY." And the thing is, the second thing that I'm thinking about...whether it's an event, or a person, or a thing...isn't real, or never happened, but I'm remembering it like it is real, and I'm relating it to things that really did happen or are actually, physically real.

When I'm awake, I never really remember it. I mean, I remember images but I never clearly remember specifically what it was I was thinking about, and I never remember the strange not-real things, except maybe as things that I flash on later in the day.

Maybe it's just that I am remembering dreams that I had, but it's just that during the day I forget that I had them. Or I forget that I remembered that I had them. Or I forget to remember that I forgot them.

But I think my dreams must be like a show on the WB, though, because the weird not-real stuff that I don't ever really remember, it always seems to continue from the last weird not-real thing that I don't really remember. And it always has the same people in it. There's a small girl I don't recognize, and an old guy in a bowtie, and a lady in a blue frilly dress.

Maybe I'm remembering stuff that happened to someone else. That really sucks. Like, why can't I remember someone else's honeymoon or vacation? Or a skydiver's stuff or a Navy Seal? Plus, this means that someone else is probably remembering my stuff. I hope it's no one I know.

The Circle of Life

In the movie "The Lion King" there is a song about the Circle of Life and how everything sort of comes back around....you know, birth, life, death, the food chain, blah blah blah. It paints a really romantic picture of nature, but I think Elton John and all those Disney guys miss the point, or at least don't paint a very accurate picture.

When you're a lion, of course, the circle of life is awesome. You eat, you sleep, you send the women out hunting. Sitting in the theater, we see the gazelle bounding gracefully across the serengeti, and we think, wow, that's so beautiful! The lion thinks, yummy! Because when you're a gazelle, the circle of life sucks.

I mean, they will never make a movie about the real circle of life, where all the Gazelle Prince wants to do is romp and play, until Simba's MOM pounces on him and carries his carcass off to the men in her pride. Or the wildebeast that becomes a hypochondriac and prays to God that it won't wind up one of the sickly ones who lag behind the herd to be brought down by a pack of hungry jackals. The circle of life is not pretty.

What about roaches? They have their own circle, after a fashion. It's a disgusting one, involving garbage cans and half-eaten food, but it's a circle. Sure they have to worry about insecticides and getting stepped on, but at least nothing is trying to eat them. Well, except those weird Indian dudes from "Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom". Roaches are disgusting, and I don't know anyone who likes them. I can't even imagine a scientist wanting to study them, but maybe bug scientists have a lottery in college to decide who gets to study what bug. I wonder if roaches know they're disgusting, which is why they always scurry away when the lighst go on. Do roaches find each other disgusting? I mean, they have to mate, but maybe they have a way to do that where they don't have to look at one another or, if worse comes to worse, maybe they just think about other bugs while they're mating.

Godzilla was apparently at the top of his circle of life, and I say that because it's hard to imagine anything trying to eat Godzilla, although you never actually see Godzilla eat anything. As far as I can tell, Godzilla only had two natural enemies, and they were 1) Anything that was as big as he was, including huge moths and robots that looked like him, and 2) Really tall buildings. You could tell Godzilla hated really tall buildings although I don't think it was ever explained why. Maybe it would be like for a human encountering an anthill that was 5 feet tall. The military hated Godzilla, you could tell because they were always trying to kill him, but I don't think he ever paid them much mind. I wonder though if maybe Godzilla wasn't just bored, and maybe if someone had just trained him to do something useful, he might have developed a better sense of self-worth.

I can say with certainty that the circle of life does not look the same from all angles.