Character Definition

I'm looking at my blog's cast of characters thinking it's time to change it again. I don't write about Allen, the guy I dated a minute, anymore. Grams makes the blog a fair amount, but Nico is so far away, and Suzy. I'm afraid if I move them from the cast list, I will be sad. And my cast will be really small. I don't write small cast productions. I write really really big ones, and then get asked to pare them down. "Combine some of these characters, Pema," is the feedback I've received in the past, and will likely receive again.

That'd be a weird note in real life. "Combine these characters." What if you had six people following you around all the time, chiming in to answer something on the tip of your tongue, questioning your involvement in the kiss you're about to get. And someone completely outside you and your six said, "Jeez, ya might wanna combine those, if just to get invited to dinner more often." What would you combine? How would you choose which of whom to composite? And what if these six were people were not shades of you, but actual people who added to--or took from--your life in some way? How would you combine them, and you, then?

Paper: 2D
Life: 3D

Powers of Perception

Power animal—Chameleon

by Amy Katz, MA— www.schooloflivingdreams.com

The power animal for September is the chameleon....Subtle shifts in physiology, emotions, climate and camouflage-needs can cause the cells of this sensitive-skinned reptilian to alter pigmentation. It is both a joy and an amazement to see them turn from brown to green, yellow to blue and back again...he proves that our bodies are inextricably bound to our emotions and environment...

Chameleons are also extraordinary seers: their cone-shaped eyes glance in different directions at the same time. This gives them...the ability to know what is coming at them from all directions, and to “see out the back of their heads." As Animal Guide, Chameleons leads us to accept our own abilities to track the movements of others intuitively, and teaches us to improve our own vast but usually untapped powers of perception.

A Bench & So Much More

Rhythm is Gonna Get You

My best dancing days all added together have not seen as much dancing as there's been in my life since Michael Jackson died, all that rhythm comin outta everywhere, radios all around.

I want a jazz funeral when I die. But if you play a little MJ when I go, it'll gimme some more boogie to woogie outta here on. And I won't mind a bit. As long as you keep marchin and swingin down the streets with them trombones and sassy colors, lovin the life I led as much as I did.

A Dreamer's Dream

Ever follow the white rabbit?

In Dreamtending, you follow the characters/images in your dream to gain some understanding of them. This is the story of a symbol that I followed into my waking hours, and back to dream again. In the Dreamtending way, I'll describe it in present tense, without pronouns or articles.

I dream I am dreaming. I am sleeping in R.V., on stiff, brown, wool flannel divan. Outside window in dream within dream is dirt plaza, one side obscured by one wall. I awake to look out into plaza and see photographer taking photo of man leaning against wall in front of him. My eyes follow camera lens. It is Michael. Looking at me even from this distance, sunlight in face and eyes, with smirk and when-ya-gonna-notice-me look. Michael wears green sweater and white shirt collar. I reach him with outstretched arms, bury my face in his neck and hug him. He hugs me with same fervor. He knows something I do not. Protects me with what he knows.

THEN:
Close-up inside open refrigerator. Someone pulls out pink wine. I call wine Zin.

That's it.

Next day, at work, in passing, I see something about a zinfandel and my dream comes back momentarily. Later, at lunch, I am strolling past Cost Plus and decide to go in to see the sale furniture they're advertising on the window. Next to the furniture is a wine display with a funny name: zinfatuation. Before I walk off, my dream comes to me again. I figure what the hell. It's the second time Zin has crossed my path today, I'll buy it just to see where it leads. At the register, there is a tiny blue book called "Dreams." I smile, figure I'm on the right track, and walk out with my mystery bottle of Zinfatuation.

At home, I open the wine at dinner--I don't usually drink wine with dinner. I was just following through with the whole trajectory. I told Lisa and Tania the story of the bottle while opening it...and we toasted to dreams. Then, Lisa wanted to tell me something. She said, I know dreams are often about yourself when you dream them, but a few nights after Michael died, he came to me in a dream. He said everything was going to be fine. And to tell you that. I didn't want to tell you, it's kinda weird. But since you're talking about dreams, I thought I'd tell you.

I followed the white rabbit, or the bottle of zin, and it led me back to the message my dream had for me, in the plaza, hugging the man who knew everything would be alright.