That weird dream… 25.04.08
ISN'T that dream weird. You
know the one when you think you are falling from
somewhere and you are panicking and you thrash your arms
out to save yourself and they suddenly hit the mattress
and you wake up and realise…wow it was only a dream.
And then you go back to sleep again. You know that’s
weird too.
Well okay, perhaps it’s not all that weird, after all if
you were in a deep sleep you’d like to go back, but it’s
the whole trauma thing I’m talking about.
Let’s take the whole dreaming, sleeping thing out for a
second and think about this.
Imagine you actually were falling. No really, really
falling from some tall skyscraper or cliff or something
that is, well, umm…very tall.
You might have done a bit of screaming at the start and
the decided there was nothing else for it and just
closed your eyes and waited. |
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And then, in a freak flash
of nature (work with me here folks this is a very
unlikely scenario I’m trying to paint) some kinda very
strong, but still warm and friendly continental wind
swirls up the street and catches you at the last minute
and you fall to the ground with no more than a gentle
bump. (The whole Superman thing would have been just too
unbelievable!)
Perhaps I’m wrong about this, but I reckon that while
you’d be feeling very lucky, you might also be pretty
traumatised by this whole series of events and, unless
you were on the receiving end of a tranquilser shot, the
last thing you’d want to do is sleep.
Anyway I mention that falling dream because well, it
happened to me.
Not the dream, well okay the dream too, but the actual
wide awake falling thingy.
Umm, well falling might be a bit of an exaggeration. It
was more like stepping off.
You see I don’t really like ladders, nasty dangerous
things, and I’m not really sure why.
People have suggested that it is because I am afraid of
heights, but I’m not really sure if that is the case.
I mean I’ve been up in high buildings before and it
didn’t bother me looking out the window or going out on
a balcony and stuff.
But then you didn’t quite get the sensation that the
building might topple over at any moment if there was a
gust of wind or if you moved to your right or to your
left.
Ladders on the other hand, while I’m certain have been
quite useful inventions, are hardly the most stable of
working environments. |
When I was younger and
stoopider or maybe braver, I’m not sure, I helped paint
my uncle’s house and while I wouldn’t exactly say with
no fear, I did go on the ladders.
However in recent times, I think the furthest I’ve got
is to actually put the ladder once against the wall of
the house, get as far as the bottom rung and then step
off picturing the whole falling back to earth thing with
a bang.
It is perhaps that which has caused me to occasionally
have that falling dream, but there are others that are
harder to explain.
Like for instance the one that I work for a newspaper
and have a column in which I just write any old kind of
nonsense….and still get paid for it! |
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A DROP OF
PORTER is
the weekly
column of
Inishowen
Independent
editor,
Liam Porter. |
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