Flowers in California

Flowers in California

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Thoughts of the Late, Late Night

I am awake and it is 1:49 a.m.  More accurately, perhaps, my mind is awake.  I don't know that I feel as energetic physically.  But I have had lots of things floating around in my mind.  Lots.

Among the things I've been pondering are the following issues, some of which you may wish to consider as well:

1.  Why do football players wear padding?  My son and I were discussing this recently while watching rugby players tear each other apart in a game.  He's heard that football padding makes injuries worse.  That makes it even more curious.  And, in my opinion, it doesn't make the players look especially attractive.

2.  What does a turtle look like from the bottom?  It's probably easy to find that out but, until you do, you could carry around a completely erroneous image in your head.  What good does that do anyone?

3.  The growing prominence of spinach.  Subway is giving it some of the attention this lovely vegetable has long deserved.  I've had a difficult relationship with lettuce but I guarantee I'll never yank a piece of spinach out of a hamburger or sandwich.  I don't think Popeye did justice to spinach.  I've tended to picture it as a green, mush-like substance.  And while it's clearly different from mucous, it's not great that mucous comes to mind.  (It never is.)  Raw spinach leaves are so much nicer than that and I welcome them to their new place of importance in the food landscape.  Way to go spinach!

4.  Captain Kangaroo - When I think of Popeye, I tend to think of his cartoons being shown within Captain Kangaroo's show (whether this took place or not, I'm not yet sure.  I have to do more Internet digging.)  Captain Kangaroo was one of the first shows I watched.  The Captain and Mr. Greenjeans were important influences in my young life.  I don't know whether that's a credit to them or not.

5.  Whether I'm feeling creative again because I've been exercising rather strenuously, eating better or doing a visualization exercise involve chakras and creativity.  Not knowing what factor or factors has/have made the difference, I want to keep working on each of them.  It's good to feel alive again.

6.  Whether I should go against my new rule (it's three days old!) of not eating after 7 pm.  While a noble and perhaps a necessary rule if I want to lose weight, it seems that at times when I really can't sleep, eating a small amount gives my body something to do and seems to lull me to sleep.  Lulling is good.

7.  The power of cheese to lead to some interesting dreams.  The mind can go to some offbeat places after eating cheese at night.  Travel like that avoids some of the inconveniences of the more traditional forms.  True, I didn't eat cheese last week when I dreamed about a grizzly bear being down the street and eating a live creature (animal? person?, I'm not sure; I know it wasn't something that normally gets eaten in the street) but that wasn't a great dream anyways.  I want a dream where people and situations morph into new people and situations.  Once someone gets eaten by a bear, their morphing days are over.  Cheese leads to better outcomes in dreams; cheese rules.

After writing the rough version of point 7 last night (it didn't mention the unfortunate bear incident; I felt a need to add that this morning, wisely or not), my mind seemed to come to rest.  I headed back to bed.  Sleep continued to elude me for a long time.  I didn't even have cheese dreams.  I did not have a good sleep at all.  Sigh.

Maybe if the temperature in our house was not so hot last night, I would have had a dream incorporating all or some of the above elements.  Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Greenjeans and I would have eaten a great lunch of spinach leaves while discussing the creativity chakra (second).  Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Greenjeans would have morphed into football and rugby players who want to discuss their uniforms.  (Let's throw in a soccer player too simply because I challenge any man to look bad in a soccer uniform.  Thanks!)   At the end, a big turtle would enter, walking upright.  We'd see it's underside and have our turtle questions answered.  So much would have been addressed and probably very quickly.  Oh, what a glorious dream that would have been.

After two nights of struggling to sleep, I appreciate this (in)activity more than usual.  Sleep matters and because our minds are so good at dreaming (even more so when aided by cheese), I trust that our dream process matters too.  Somewhere within, we're all creative.  We have a lot to share.  Sleep well, everyone, and dream lots!  And please, watch out for bears.  That's advice you won't go wrong heeding, whether you're asleep or awake.  Enjoy!

JAHD