In A Dream

“I wonder if there’s life somewhere else.

“Maybe it’s not as evolved, but it will be.

“There will be the first smart people, and they’ll have to fight.

“If you ever need to hasten to my side, by all means do so.

“I will always fight for you.”

Somewhere between space documentaries, the Divergent series, and my own feelings about school, I had a dream with these words in it. A few days turned into a few years, and I forgot about it.

I don’t know the context of the dream. I don’t know if these words were being said to me, or if I was saying these words to someone else (even if I was just musing). I don’t remember any imagery associated with this dream.

And one day, unbidden, these words replayed in my head years after I had the dream. This had to have been three or four years ago. The words had made a mark, so I decided to pen them down lest I forget them again. I wrote the words as I remembered them, taking support from the memory that seemed to be surfacing as if breaking the surface of water.

I had no thoughts about what I was writing. I was letting my memories guide me. And when I had finished and looked at the words, I felt the way any waking person feels about the dream they had: What a weird thing to dream about…

I couldn’t let go for some reason. I wrote it somewhere it would keep crossing my eyes, and I felt good about my decision to write it down. And yet, the whole thing didn’t make sense to me, perhaps until a few months after I wrote the words. My dreams had conjured up a weird amalgamation of our own history, and the open-ended reality that what happened with us could happen again, or could happen somewhere else. History repeats itself.

I am reminded of a post I wrote some time ago on Amateur Astronomy: “The Battle of The Mind.” It talks of something similar: sometimes, people ahead of their times face persecution. Someone marginally different from the pack is feared more often than awed. And yet, these are the people that go down in history, that we see as the best of us. They are the historical heroes: Mozart, Beethoven, Da Vinci, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and so many more.

And when you’re someone ahead of their time in a brutish period of history, persecution turns particularly violent. In the twenty-first century, this persecution is not as bad as, say, forcing someone to drink poison (happened to Socrates) or burning someone at the stake (happened to Giordano Bruno). The persecution is verbal or mental, and in severe cases it gets physical. And yet…in the context of this dream, I can’t help but think that we are atop a house of cards. I get the feeling that I’m being naïve when I say that this type of persecution isn’t so bad today. I feel like we need to be on our toes. Good things don’t last forever.

For now, there are planets in the Universe that are just beginning the chain of evolution. At least, there must be. In a few billion years, they will begin experiencing their own history. They will become sentient beings, capable of everything humans are, maybe more. And then, they will have their own set of beings who had to struggle because in the scheme of their species, they are the ones who usher in new eras – of knowledge, or politics, or societies. They, too, will face resistance.

In the meantime, what’s happening here with us? What about those among us already facing a struggle?

My dream tells me to extend my support to them. I know people whose ideas do not fit into the status quo. What I can do for them is sympathize and try to understand. I can assure them that I will stand up for them. I can earn their trust, tell them that they are not alone.

If you ever need to hasten to my side, by all means do so.

I will always fight for you.

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