Benomia 3 wrote:There's an idea I've been trying to grapple for awhile now. Remember last summer when I had a nice thread series going where I'd try to get you guys to talk about life and the human mind rather than arguing about how much tension there is in the Near East this time of year? Consider this a part of that. Anyway, I've had this idea going around in my mind.
The idea that we can find peace somewhere else, without having actually been there...the idea that "dreams" are just that, dreams.
It's always been a childhood dream of mine to leave. Head out to Vermont, maybe, and buy a lot of land to just sit on and think. Build bungalows on hills in Wyoming, perhaps, while the television raves about problems of a world I'm not really a part of.
More recently, it's been to move to Ireland, where an ocean would separate me from my fears of heroin-fueled home invasions and nuclear power plants wiping out my city while I sleep. I can see it clearly in my mind - the streets of Dublin spread out in front of my eyes as I breathe European air, content in my knowledge that I made it.
I'll never move to Ireland.
I'll never own acres of land in Vermont as I maintain my own organic vegetable garden, and I'll never dam up streams in Wyoming to wet my toes in as I casually fish from a makeshift dock built out of tree stumps. I'll never look south upon a lake on the Canadian-American border as I think about how annoying crickets are when I'm trying to sleep, and I'll certainly never casually stroll across the streets of Prague as I think about how beautiful the Czech architecture looks compared to the subdued blobs of iron back in New Jersey.
I know this. I always have known this. I still dream about Dublin, though. I still dream about Vermont. I still wake up every morning and check the locks on my windows to make sure they're still sound, and that'll never change. I'll never change. During the day, you see, I'm a 511 operator for the state of New Jersey, watching from my bird's eye view as the entire world collectively decides to make left turns too quickly, and as every blond-haired college girl with a Honda decides at once to plow straight into that guardrail. This is what I do during the day. During the night, however, I'm growing maize in Wyoming, and occasionally going into town to stock up on shells for the shotgun that I kept around. During the day I watch people die a dozen times a week as officers in black suits tell me that they're going to need a second copy of that video for the evidence locker. During the night I'm in Montana, snuggling down my pet fox cub who's mother was somebody's coat. During the day you sit on dusty office chairs as the monotony of the day gets written down on monochromatic forms as the police tell you kindly that you've been a great help. At night you're in Ireland. Close your eyes.
How about you, NSG? Am I crazy? Am I alone in this? Where are you at night? Where do you go in your dreams, to escape whatever ails you face during the day? Are you in Manitoba, wrestling your mind and enjoying every moment? Maybe you're in New York, watching from your 88th-story window as the world moves below you? Maybe you're in Ohio, finally paying off the loan for that farm you bought so your kids don't have to sell their self-worth to some faceless corporation? What's your "dream life"?
Close your eyes, NSG. Where are you?
10/10 best thread 2015.
