This is one of my favorite quotes, I guess because it cuts neatly and simply to the paradox of existence. All systems based on binary or dyadic dichotomies are circular and can make sense in and of themselves. That is, they work well if you've got a little faith. But they are ultimately lacking in any absolute resolution of the nature of existence so those of us among the unfaithful are left with "they are real while they last".I've always loved dreams. As a young boy I can remember actually liking to go to bed at night and slip into a dream world that I actually had some control over. (Years later this would be called lucid dreaming. Who knew? I sure as hell didn't, but in my slipping into sleep I would build an underground world with miniature cars and colorful plastic buildings, populated with small people and talking animals.
Our wise modern psychologists insist that dreams are just yesterday's trash of the mind being thrown away so you can start afresh in the morning and they really have no meaning. And, you know, it kind'a makes sense, I can buy into that. But tell that to the gal that is dreaming that her mother-in-law is chasing her with a butcher knife.
Of course there is that one dream that sticks with you because it is so,so,so real that you can't get it out of your head and you really want to know what it means, but you just can't figure it out. My scariest nightmare was like that. My mother-in-law chasing me, I could understand, but this scary dream shouldn't have been scary at all. I mean no monsters or anything. It was a stark white room. There was a small high window with white filmy curtains and a little girl all dressed in white (no one I knew) and she was pretty but with a rather passive expression. And it was terrifying. Go figure!
Maybe the dreams have no meaning and it's all in the interpretation. I mean maybe the Pharaoh dreamed of 7 fat calves and 7 lean calves (just waste from the day before) but when he asked Joseph to tell him what it meant (Joseph made it real through interpreting it )And the reality was that Egypt was in for 7 years of good times and then 7 years of bad times came to light. (You know God sure makes it hard for some by talking in parables, or riddles, like the fat and skinny cows, but then he must like others more because he gets real direct, "Noah, build a boat.")
I don't actually remember too many of my dreams like I did while I was younger. I once worked with a lady in a dream workshop that came to the meeting with 3 or 4 dreams that she remembered from the previous night, but then she really, really believed that ALL dreams were messages from God and she was supposed to figure each one out. Actually kind'a neat!
As for the meaning of dreams, I find myself leaning toward the interpretation of dreams as having more meaning than the actual dream because you can pick up someone else's dream, treat it as your own and give it meaning **FOR YOU** But that being said, the realness of the dream belongs to the dreamer.
Actually the quote works just as well backwards. "Life is real while it lasts, what more could be said of dreams."
Have you had any good dreams lately?
