My Top Five: Why Reality is Better Than Dreams (Jenny O'Connell)
I think that people typically assume that dreams are better than reality. I mean, we hear it all the time: the guy of my dreams, the dream job, my dream vacation. But really, are dreams better than reality? I guess I don't think so. So here are my top five reasons why reality is better than dreams:
1. Dream: I can't ever dial the phone when I want to or need to. Either I keep forgetting the phone number, or the call never goes through, or my fingers can't seem to work the buttons, it's highly frustrating and unpleasant and, in some dreams, can be life-threatening.
Reality: I have a cell phone. I pick it up and dial the number I want. The call goes through. I even have numbers pre-programmed so I don't have to remember them. It's great.
2. Dream: Falling. Far. Down. Hundreds of feet off cliffs. Buildings I'm in tip over and fall to the ground. Lots of plummeting toward the earth from a height not to be survived. Not fun.
Reality: The only falls I take are when I trip over my own feet running to the head of the line at the ice cream stand.
3. Dream: I'm not graduating from college. I've gone all four years only to realize, the day of my graduation, that I never studied. And I'm going to fail my exams. I have no idea what I'm doing, no idea what any of the answers are. And that means I flunk out. Damn, why didn't I study?
Reality: I graduated college. Yea!!
4. Dream: My teeth? Yea, they're all loose. And falling out. And there's no stopping it.
Reality: I have all of my teeth and they are perfectly straight and white thanks to braces and impeccable dental hygiene.
5. Dream: I'm naked. And not in a good way. No, this naked is highly inappropriate and public. How the hell did I leave the house and forget my clothes?
Reality: This never happens.
So, see? Reality can be infinitely better than dreams.
1. Dream: I can't ever dial the phone when I want to or need to. Either I keep forgetting the phone number, or the call never goes through, or my fingers can't seem to work the buttons, it's highly frustrating and unpleasant and, in some dreams, can be life-threatening.
Reality: I have a cell phone. I pick it up and dial the number I want. The call goes through. I even have numbers pre-programmed so I don't have to remember them. It's great.
2. Dream: Falling. Far. Down. Hundreds of feet off cliffs. Buildings I'm in tip over and fall to the ground. Lots of plummeting toward the earth from a height not to be survived. Not fun.
Reality: The only falls I take are when I trip over my own feet running to the head of the line at the ice cream stand.
3. Dream: I'm not graduating from college. I've gone all four years only to realize, the day of my graduation, that I never studied. And I'm going to fail my exams. I have no idea what I'm doing, no idea what any of the answers are. And that means I flunk out. Damn, why didn't I study?
Reality: I graduated college. Yea!!
4. Dream: My teeth? Yea, they're all loose. And falling out. And there's no stopping it.
Reality: I have all of my teeth and they are perfectly straight and white thanks to braces and impeccable dental hygiene.
5. Dream: I'm naked. And not in a good way. No, this naked is highly inappropriate and public. How the hell did I leave the house and forget my clothes?
Reality: This never happens.
So, see? Reality can be infinitely better than dreams.
3 and 5 are among my demons. Add in living next to an alien spaceport (probably the 3 a.m. logging trucks) and being paralyzed on the opposite side of a jungle log from millions of hungry ants and those are my recurring ones. Reality is certainly preferable.
ReplyDeleteI hate that teeth dream.
ReplyDelete