Dreaming

AH, the strange, beautiful, terrifying and personal wonder that is dreaming. The key word here is personal–dreams read like your own novel; they are thoughts and emotions and experiences expressed with your own individual metaphors. Dream dictionaries are not necessary. The answers, ideas and release that are present in our dreams need only a bit of reflection to be understood.

A few years back I had had a dream in which my car kept breaking down and eventually fell into a body of water through a break in the road. At the time I was dreaming vividly and recorded my dreams adamantly. It wasn't until a few days after the dream that I realized the car was a representation of my body and my psyche was asking me to take better care of it. I had been thinking about the various things a body does prior to having that dream, and, among other aspects, came up with the words "My body gets me where I need to go." The faulty car in my dream was a warning, a request for respect and honor towards my physical being.

Love's Executioner by Irvin D. Yalom is an excellent book showcasing the healing power of dreams. It is a collection of ten case studies, and each of Yalom's patients undergo vast changes and delve deep into their own hearts and minds. One of the patients in his book, Dave, is terminally ill and shares this dream:

"Death is all around me. I can smell death. I have a packet with an envelope stuffed inside of it, and the envelope contains something that is immune to death or decay or deterioration. I'm keeping it secret. I go to pick it up and feel it, and suddenly I seee that the envelope is empty. I feel very distressed about that and notice that it's been slit open. Later I find what I assume was in the envelope on the street, and it is a dirty old shoe with the sole coming off."

After discussing the dream with Yalom and his group members, Dave comes to see the shoe as himself: "'My God! A dirty old man whose soul is about to leave him! That's me all right!' He chuckled at his own creation. A lover of words (he spoke several languages), he marveled at the transposition of soul and sole."

Yalom states in the prologue that there is no singular meaning to a dream. Dave's dream could have pointed him in any number of directions, but that moment of epiphany gave him the understanding he needed at the moment. One could spend days peeling away the layers of meaning in a dream and still have much to explore.

Another interesting dream perspective someone shared with me is to take on the role of every character in your dream. I told her about a dream in which someone wouldn't make eye contact with me, and she parleyed with, "Maybe you're not making eye contact with yourself."

There's much to explore when you wake up from a vivid dream. Next time it happens take the time to write it down and see what you're trying to tell yourself.

More on the Food and Diet Industry

A few good articles by Mandy Katz about food, body image, diets, etc. in The Times yesterday. It's interesting to note that these articles are located in "Styles". It makes sense; body types have their own "fashion eras" so to speak. Venus had her day,
The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli

as did Twiggy.
Image via Match Game

One article is about the new-old "fat acceptance" trend, which on one side of the spectrum embraces realistic bodies and on the other encourages a complacency in obesity. Overall, the movement is about focusing on aspects of life other than weight: "The aim is to behave as if you have reached your 'goal weight' and to act on ambitions postponed while trying to become thin, everything from buying new clothes to changing careers."

It is too true that many people feel everything will fall into place once they lose a certain amount of weight. Often times when that goal weight is attained the obsession with food, exercise or diet still remains and the person is no closer to their actual goals.

Katz mentions the adversary of this new trend–the weight loss industry itself, a staggering $30-billion dollar monstrosity.

Katz also wrote a review of Lessons From the Fat-O-Sphere by Kate Harding, a book about Harding's own experience with ditching dieting and learning to eat intuitively.

Harding has a photo set on Flickr titled "Illustrated BMI Categories". It's interesting to look at pictures of these women, many of whom are attractive. They all are seemingly oblivious to the words "underweight", "normal" or "obese" hovering above their images.

The Body Mass Index Calculator is not an accurate tool for determining a healthy weight. It takes no account of bone or muscle mass, and unfortunately is used as a standard in many health practices, including eating disorder treatment centers.

Men don't have it easy either, not to say that struggles with weight and food is a gender-specific problem. According to Men's Health, a truly fit male can bench press 1.5 times his body weight, swim 700 yards in 12 minutes and leap to the basketball rim. Those sound more like the standards of a professional athlete rather than a man who's merely in shape.

We need to redefine our notions of beauty and health. Be it a string bean or a great pumpkin, the human body is an amazing and beautiful entity.

Wildwood

An Analog Past

The VHS selection at the Danbury Public Library has dwindled to about 30 titles. VHS players have been out of production for almost a year. Kodak's infamous Kodachrome has been retired. The news is free domain.

We are walking into a digital future, and we're doing it a few pounds lighter. Clunky tapes have been replaced by sleek discs and tiny flash drives, darkrooms by laptops and desktop printers. The air around us is vibrating with wireless connections and cell phone signals. Instant connectivity is our reality.

Songs can be summoned from the air! The actual structure for the presentation of music has changed. We listen to playlists as much as we do albums, perhaps more. Albums can be broken up and bought piecemeal. It seems the process of appreciation has sped up, and while in the past we looked to preserve that which we held dear, now we are looking to share it with everyone.

My 35mm camera hasn't seen the light of day since sometime last fall. Though I love the physicality, science and integrity of film, it's easier and timelier to adjust for color and contrast on a computer, and, ultimately, I want to share the pictures via the internet.

Yet a photograph is simple; all you need is some viewing light and it can be enjoyed. An unprinted digital photograph is specks of information on a hard drive or a server; it is something almost intangible. I look at my computer, full of pictures and music and essays, and imagine the hopelessness of knowing all the things it holds and not being able to turn it on. There is something to be said for a physical object, no matter how heavy or cumbersome. Be it a book, photograph, or vinyl recording, it's just there. It will always be accessible because it dwells in our dimension.

We are more connected than ever, but what exactly is connecting us?