Dream Parables

Last night I dreamed that I spent hours in the check­out line at Wal-Mart. It was a very pleas­ant dream. I had all sorts of very inter­est­ing con­ver­sa­tions, and no one was in a hurry. No one was upset. The cashier went about her work smoothly and smiled. With the three other peo­ple in line, we dis­cussed the new way the gov­ern­ment prints money, and even spent sev­eral min­utes look­ing for hid­den faces of for­mer Pres­i­dents. It was quite inter­est­ing and fun.
Does that sound like a nor­mal trip to Wal-Mart or any other store? Well, yes and no. There are some of those ele­ments in the real world and some that are not — but could be. Dreams are all night para­bles. They often tell com­mon sto­ries, but with an unusual twist. They also pose a sense of bal­ance to what is out of bal­ance in real life.
Our most annoy­ing chores could actu­ally be some of our most pleas­ant moments. It is all in the atti­tudes of all of the peo­ple involved. What if we were not in a hurry? What if peo­ple could have pos­i­tive con­ver­sa­tions and not feel the need to be defen­sive? Most of all, what if we could all share a child­like sense of the mys­ter­ies of liv­ing?
The call of the soul in the dream was clear: We have lost the help­ful joys of sim­ply being peo­ple together in a com­mu­nity. Our dis­trac­tions are too numer­ous and triv­ial. Hur­ry­ing to and from the store, only to hurry to and from the next event, leaves us feel­ing empty — even angry. What we need most in life is other peo­ple, that also need other peo­ple in their lives too.