Dream A Little Dream

Dreams! We all have them, or we hope to have them. Throughout the world people are day dreaming or dreaming at night, dreaming of their future, dreaming of the past, or wishing they didn't dream at all. Dreams come in many forms and can mean many different things. We often strive to remember, to understand, to interpret. Many, many books have been written on the subject, on the symbols, on what each thing in a dream means. And many questions have arisen. Some we can answer-such as when do dreams occur (in this case night dreams during REM sleep), but others are still unknown. If we die in our dream, do we die in real life? Can we see the future through our dreams? Can we see the past?

I don't have the answers. I wish I did. But I often dream. Sometimes I dream of things that I swear come true later in my life, while at other times, I dream of things that I hope never come true. The other night I had a dream, that while not that prophetic or scary, perhaps has a deeper meaning for my life. Let me share it, and you tell me what you think.

First of all, I remember it in fragments, so I have pieced it together into a cohesive story here as best I can.

So I was at work, but it wasn't the actual place of my work, in the sense that it wasn't the same building or all of the same people. For example, my work is a single long space, with one floor. The building I was in was two stories with a large staircase going down to the second level. I was at my workspace on the second floor, working on the computer. I think I was doing refunds of some kind--in which I transfer money on the computer so checks can get printed.  I was almost done, when suddenly there was a loud commotion. I didn't really pay attention, but my co-worker grabbed me. "No," I exclaimed. "I'm almost done with these. What are you doing?" Suddenly, I heard gunshots and looked up. There, at the front of the space was three or four guys. One had a gun and the shots I had just heard were him shooting celing to get our attention. "Everyone in the seats," he yelled.

Suddenly, we were all seated in rows of what looked like church pews. I was sitting up front next to my co-worker trying to understand what was going on, when I suddenly realized that I knew the gunman. His name was Ryan, and I had gone to highschool with him. So I tried talking to him. "Ryan," I said. "What do you want? Why don't you just let us go?" I really don't remember any answer he might of said, but I do recall that I was able to get him to let some of us go. Throughout the dream I was talking to him and trying to reason with him. I have no recollection of why he was there or what he wanted, just that he had a gun and was holding us hostage.

Here, my dream skips. I suddenly find myself running down the large set of stairs from the second floor, to the first floor, and finally outside. I am barefoot for some reason. I keep running and running. I run downtown, but he is following me, yelling at me to stop. It starts to rain and we are both getting soaked. I try to duck into a storefront, but the store is locked. Suddenly I find myself at a stoplight. I stop and look around. He is coming, but I can't seem to choose which direction to go............and I wake up.

I told my friend about this dream, and my friend believes that the dream is telling me a number of things. 1) I need to find a new job. -- I was actually thinking about this anyway, so it makes sense. 2) My town, my home town, the place I currently live, is holding me hostage and I need to leave. -- This is of course represented by the hostage taker Ryan. 3) I need to flee, to get out, to make changes, but I am not sure what those changes need to be. That I am blocked. That I am torn. -- The store front and the light. and 4) Perhaps, I need to go to church a little more. -- The church pews.

So what do you think? Is my friend right? Or was it just a crazy dream that means nothing what-so-ever?
                            

— S