Do Dream People Like Us?

I've been dreaming about Peter since I was 16.  Now, I'm -- well, I'm a lot older than 16.  I've gone through a lot in my life and have lost 99% of my friends along the way. (You become homeless and everyone brands you a drug addict, even if you are like me and do not take drugs.)  Dream Peter is the only friend I've had who I'm not related to.  Even though at my advanced age I know he is not a real person and is mostly a combination of my neurons firing as I sleep, it still matters to me that Peter likes me.

I've had many dreams where he has been quite annoyed with me.  There have even been times when he has even told me that he can't deal with me at the moment, so I leave him alone.  If all people we dream about are really parts of ourselves, then I can honestly say that I get quite annoyed at me and can't deal with me at times, so I can't blame Peter for being cranky.

He Loves Me Not

A few nights ago I dreamt that Peter was  a school bus driver.  He didn't drive a school bus, though.  He drove the whole school from a little room in the side as opposed to a bus.  The school was way-too-bright white.  He faced us instead of the road as he drove the school around.   This was all completely normal.  That's dream logic for you.

Anyway, I would go visit Peter before and after my classes for the day, as did many other students.  Peter was usually very kind to us all, but he had a cool detatchment.  He was not interested in our problems.  But then I got into a physical fight with a bully.  In real life, this bully is a local addict that once threatened to kill my dog.  Anyway in the dream, she was really cruel to the other students (but I cannot remember how.)  I finally tossed her out of the school and, just to add insult to injury, told her that she was fat.

Peter changed after that.  He refused to talk to anyone.  He kept his doors locked.  He finally just stopped the school and marched out and away.  Everyone blamed me for Peter's foul mood and I couldn't argue with them.  I wasn't feeling too proud of  myself for calling the bully fat (even though she was obese.) I was suprised that anything I did could affect him.

He Loves Me (A Little)

Then very early this morning I had a long, complicated dream that will take far too long to describe in a blog post.  Maybe I'll post it later.  The gist was that I became lucid to discover that Peter was directing the entire dream.  I couldn't see him, but I knew he was in charge.  A group of us (not just me) had to solve very complex problems in order to stop some sort of invasion.  We succeeded, partially because I had figured out that it was Peter who held all of the cards.  He wadn't going to directly help us, but our group learned to see the hints that he dropped (sometimes litrally) into the dream to help us fulfill our task.

After the task was done, I was having tea in a wood-panelled bar (I don't even drink in my dreams, it seems) and Peter's voice soared over the radio.  He sung beautifully in Gabrielese (which is what the real Peter Gabriel calls this type of singing.)  Peter than walked in and gave me a hug.  Well, most of him did.  He was headless.  I guess not being allowed to see his face is just a little reminder that he hasn't fully forgiven me. 

When it comes to dreams, take  whatever you can get.

Still from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917) from Wikimedia Commons.