The blinding bright lights suddenly flicked on.
I was startled very abruptly from a deep sleep. Simultaneously there was a tremendous clatter and banging as an empty garbage can came bouncing down the full length of the barracks between our rows of bunks. “Wake up. Wake up. Wake up you dirty (curses deleted). Get up. Get up. Get up now. Move it!”
It suddenly dawned on me where I was and what was happening... Parris Island, South Carolina, 1964.
I woke up to a good morning welcome to our first day of U S Marine Corps boot camp. Rather than waking up from a nightmare, I woke up to a nightmare.
It seems amusing in hindsight. But at the time it was quite a shock. There was the sudden horrible realization of having no control over my environment and no self-determinism. Absolute authority and dictatorship reigned over me. My drill instructor had just proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the cause and I was the total effect.
It’s a bright and sunny Saturday morning here now, more than fifty years later. I’ve been up for almost an hour. My body has loosened up some and the coffee is kicking in.
The cobwebs are fading and I’m pretty near awake. I like to wake up gradually, not like the previous episode that just so surprisingly came to mind.
The sleep process and waking up from it is quite interesting when you look at it. It’s as though you’re stepping from one universe to another. Sleeping is supposed to be really necessary rather than a habit. But scientists can’t truly tell us why.
At times it appears more of a tradition and something that everyone agrees we should do. But, go without it for a while and you’re convinced it’s something you really need.
One third of our lives is consumed in this altered, semi- conscious existence. We find ourselves in a different dream world reality in this time of sleep.
Yet we wake up in the morning and totally nullify the validity of our night time thoughts, dreams and fantasies. So, is that world of slumber completely separate from our daytime existence?
I’ve read science fiction stories where the theme was: what we view as our active daytime awake world being our true reality could be incorrect.
The concept that our nighttime dream world is our basic foundation of reality, as agreed by everyone, was explored and that our daylight realm is all but a dream.
The aboriginals in Australia view life as somewhat similar to this theory.
I know some people whose lives certainly appear to have an unreal, foggy, more fluid rather than solid existence. I imagine you know some people like this also. They seem caught halfway between both worlds and haven’t totally woken up from their previous state.
A story, play or scene that you may create, all have similar characteristics.
Usually, you are the main character. You experience the emotion and drama of all the action. Other players are involved. There’s a beginning and end sequence to the scene.
There are wins and losses in the unfolding drama and you are quite personally involved in the outcome. So, to really get into and play your part in this production, you diminish the awareness that you are also the author, director and producer of this show. Dreams also run very similar to this pattern.
So, in actual fact, is this very much different from our everyday and every night lives?
Of course, in fantasies you can create strengths, abilities and characteristics of greatness you don’t possess in real life.
But then again, as the author and creator of the plot and script of your own life, why can’t you create these?
Well, I’m fully awake now. Please just never mind all my previous rambling. That was all just a dream.
Dan O’Connor can be reached at danhughoconnor@gmail.com