A Dream is Mental Charity

I have a question for anyone out there: What, or whom, do you dream about most?

That is, if you remember your dreams at all.

No one really knows for sure what dreams are, or what they mean. If you're a realist, chances are you'll say that dreams are just the mind's dumpster, the leftovers of our thoughts and memories jumbled into nonsensical stories or images. If you're a psychology-minded person, you might say that dreams offer clues to who we are, our inner selves trying to gain recognition. If you're a 'spiritual' person, you might say that dreams are projections of what is to come, our mind trying to tell us of the future it sees for itself.

Or maybe, just maybe, your dreams are the thoughts you won't let yourself think during the day. You know what I'm talking about. Those thoughts that you need to snuff out to get through the day. The thoughts that never lead to anything good, and result in unfulfilled longing for a past or future that is never really going to happen, no matter what The Secret says.

There is one subject that my dreams can never quite shake. No matter what I suppress or ignore, no matter where else I focus my main attention, it keeps coming back. It used to pop up way more frequently, but nowadays, just when I think it's gone for good, BAM. Back, bitches.

And for some reason, I never realize that it's a dream while I'm in it. I mean, you would think that however improbable these dreams are, especially when connected with the same improbable subject, I would learn something. If I realized it was a dream, I could take it as far as I wanted. No consequences. I guess if you're an optimist, that is a dream's greatest potential.

So I'm going to be an optimist and say that maybe dreams are our minds way of giving us what we can't have. It's an odd sensation, waking up, realizing what you were dreaming, and trying to figure out if it actually happened. Of course, it didn't. But for that one second, it's possible that maybe... just maybe.... it did. And even though it wasn't real, a part of you is thankful that you got to feel what it was like. Thankful that you got one more moment, one more chance, one more kiss, one more soft word, one more triumph.

Because, let's face it: It's better than nothing.