Saturday, April 02, 2011

The Long And Winding Road

It could be that there is something to be gained from restless nights. At the very least, I might avoid the rambling dream time that deep sleep provides. As I have mentioned before, I don't tend to have particularly fantastic imagery in my dreams. Unicorns are pretty scarce, and so are whimsical notions. I tend to dream to get dreams full of logistics. Many of these center around moving from one apartment to another: packing up boxes and trying to find a place for everything that I brought with me from the old place in the new. Last night I was trying to meet up with my parents who were planning a birthday celebration for me at our mountain cabin. This was a pretty matter-of-fact leap, since many of my summertime birthday parties were held there. The problem was that Magnolia Road, the twisting, turning dirt avenue that wound its way up into the hills was under construction. Unfortunately, there was also a good deal of water damage done to the newly paved sections, and enormous earth moving machinery was blocking what little path was available. I suggested to a man in a hard hat that I would be willing to walk around the obstruction and hike my way in. He replied that besides being far too dangerous a trek, that it would take me several days. I wanted to argue with him. I wanted to tell him that my brothers and I had walked this same stretch of road, although coming downhill, on several occasions in our youth. But there wasn't any recourse. I was stuck. Unless I turned around and drove up Boulder Canyon to Nederland, and then on to Pine Glade Road, where my family waited, patiently no doubt, for me to arrive. It was then that I realized that I had left my car behind in the mud and mire, and it had been swallowed up by all the commotion of construction. I was stuck. When I awoke, I started to decipher the meaning of what I had seen with my eyes closed. What did the construction represent? Was it education reform? Was my car really my job? Where did that highway lead to? Why didn't I just go up to the mountains with my family in the first place? Then I decided that I didn't want to know all the answers. I was just glad to be awake and wandering into the bathroom, where everything was where I left it.

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