I have mentioned before that I place a certain amount of credibility in my dreams. While most thing that a dream is nothing more than a brain defrag, the opportunity for our brains to exercise themselves when the rest of the body isn’t doing much, I’m part of the minority that puts a little more stock into the content of our dreams. I remember at least one dream at night, and I have actively maintained a dream journal since my high school days. One of the earliest dreams I recall involved playing BINGO with the Brady Bunch, because they’re showing opening had that grid thing and I figured they must have loved BINGO. I know I was pretty young when I had that dream, because it was when my sister was still in her crib (she’s two years younger than me) and I had my own bed in the back bedroom of our little mobile home we lived in at the time.
Anyways, back in 2002 or so I wrote in my dream journal that I was driving along Route 5S near the Village of Fort Plain (with a question mark next to ‘Plain’ because that didn’t feel quite right). I was in a black car (at the time we owned a maroon Impala) and I was driving home from work (I didn’t work anywhere near Fort Plain, today I do). I encountered a tornado and had to take shelter. It was a thrilling dream for me as I survived the storm just fine and I had always wanted to see a tornado. The black car even survived.
I had the same dream last night, though the black car was a black Jeep and I wasn’t in Fort Plain. I was in Fort Wayne. This is interesting, because I have never been in Fort Wayne in my life but I do suppose that because of their geographical location, they are apt to get a tornado or two during the appropriate season.
Perhaps Earl and I need to visit Fort Wayne.
There wasn’t much else remarkable about the dream. Just a lot of wind and rain and thunder and me crouching in a ditch as I watch the tornado go by a little ways up the road. My work badge, which hangs on a lanyard around my neck, is flopping around a little bit but I didn’t notice much else about me. The terrain was relatively flat in that I could see quite a ways off and I could see sun off in the distance, so I knew the storm would be short-lived. I woke up with a feeling of exhilaration, though, because I had finally experienced a tornado up close and personal.
I think I’m ready for some spring storms.
I can’t decide if there is a meaning behind the dream, other than me living out my desire to chase storms. Perhaps the flapping badge indicated that work interferes with chasing that dream.
What’s most important about the whole thing is that I felt relatively rested when I woke up this morning, despite my chasing tornadoes.
