5. DISTANT JOURNEY

The following is the dream of 58-year old college professor:

I am with Ted, his wife, Beth, and their unisex child who is without name. Ted and I were close friends as students at York (Pa.) Jr. College and at Temple University in the mid to late 1960s. We have only seen each other twice since then, the latest time being the beginning of August (2003) at Bethany Beach, Delaware along the Atlantic Ocean.

In the dream Ted, Beth, their child, and I are on a trip in Canada. We are traveling at a high rate of speed driven by a type of unknown technology. No one is steering whatever is carrying us. I have forgotten to bring along my prescription medicine. At first, I am very worried about the lack of medicine but soon forget about this problem. I don't change clothing throughout this week. My clothing stays clean and fresh during this time. The only thing I feel that I am missing is a cup of strong, black coffee.

In the dream I thought that our travels would end in some rural area in Canada. Instead, we stop at a city in Newfoundland. The city, without a name, is one of the most interesting places I have ever experienced. I am fascinated by the city's markets. Ted leaves to go to his job in San Francisco. I stay with Beth and the child. Beth and I have interesting conversations. I take walks with their child. Throughout the week we don't sleep and stay very alert. When Ted returns we fly to New Zealand via the same transportation system that we used in Canada. On the way to New Zealand Ted informs me why it is important to go there -- something about visiting relatives in that country.

At 6:00 a.m. National Public Radio (NPR) wakens me from my sleep to the troubling world news. I choose to go back to sleep to complete the dream. In the remaining part of the dream Ted, Beth, their child and I go to Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Ted grew up about 20 miles east of that city and I grew up about 20 miles north of there. I then know it is time to awake and I do so.

Commentary on the Dream (HRM)

It is significant here that the dreamer has recently reconnected with an old college classmate and friend to go on a journey together. Life itself is a kind of journey, but what is the destination? As we get older, time seems to speed up, as it does in this dream where the dreamer finds himself "traveling at a high rate of speed" by an unknown technology. The forces that drive us into the second half of life are unknown but powerful just the same: "No one is steering whatever is carrying us."

The dreamer saw his companion (Ted) fairly recently, but infrequently before that, so it is natural that seeing him recently becomes a kind of trigger or marker on the journey of life. It poses an unconscious question "Where have you come to so far?"

The destination of this journey is Canada: on the one hand, another country but also one nearby, and not all that different. The unisex child is now a baby, full of potentiality, the future-not-yet here, like dreamer was in youth.

To travel on this journey-of-life involves some anxiety: in this case, will the dreamer have the medication needed to preserve well-being? Maybe the only medication to rely on is something very ordinary-- something like strong, black coffee, which keeps us awake and alert.

Clothing is a kind of costume, a mask we adopt to present ourselves to the world: it covers us but also reveals something of who we are. In this dream, the dreamer's clothing remains the same, yet miraculously fresh-- as if one's identity could remain fresh and clean despite the passage of years, like the clothing in this dream.

The destination here was supposed to be "some rural area in Canada" (why would anyone go there?) But the real destination turns out to be "New-found-land:" that is, a newly found, nameless city of unexpected interest. Like life itself, the destination of the journey is remarkable place, as the markets in this nameless city suggest.

But what about the traveling companion? In the dream Ted goes but Beth stays. Ted goes off to a distant place (San Francisco) while the dreamer remains behind with the feminine image and the young child. The dreamer's bonding with the feminine figure here is very powerful: the dreamer goes on walks with her and the child, doesn't sleep all week, yet remains very alert. Is this an image of what the dreamer might want to become in the future?

In the last part of the dream, the companion (Ted) returns and a now new journey begins-- this time to a place even more distant (New Zealand), using the same powerful mysterious transportation system as before. The companion, who is of course the dreamer himself, is strangely attracted to this distant destination-- "visiting relatives," though the real reason remains obscure.

So the journey continues and the dreamer has now been informed about why he must go this far-off place, even if he understands only a little about the real reason for the journey, as we do of life itself.