The Spirits Did It All In One Night!
Posted at 6:00 AM on December 23, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(32 Comments)
This afternoon I'll have the privilege of taking my family to see A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie. The Dickens classic never fades because it touches real places inside that reflect our deepest fears and highest aspirations.
Plus, it has ghosts.
The sudden transformative effect of the spirits of past, present and future always leaves me wondering if I should think of them as real supernatural interlopers in Scrooge's tidy, selfish world, or if they represent his own subconscious attempt to change his ways through self-inflicted dream therapy.
I tend toward believing the supernatural explanation. My dreams are rarely as realistic and coherent as the case put forward by these ghosts. If Scrooge is only dreaming, where are the talking Koala Bears and Squids playing slide trombone?
Besides, I usually wake up with the clear recollection of only a fragment of what was going on in my head during a restless night.
Do you remember your dreams?
Comments (32)
hello All - i'm sorry to be so monomaniacal, but my Dream is out in the barn. she (and the others) remind me daily of the past and future
Dale, if you haven't already planned it for another time, could you please play the Everly Bros. "Dream" for us? we'll be back in from milking about 7:30 thanks so much
and thanks for the mele akdkfjsklsa;..... :-) (haven't got time to look it up to cut and paste)
have fun at the play, Dale - it's a fun one.
Good Morning to All,
I'm similar to you, Dale, for most of my dreams. I don't remember much or any thing about them. There is one dream I always rememger that I have from time to time.
The dream I have every once in a while is a night mare about school. I found out from something I read and from other people that many people have a night mare similar to mine. It is about not finishing school work or not getting to an exam on time.
I guess I am being visiited about my past like Scrouge. I actually was a fairly good student. However, apprently like many other people, school wasn't much fun for me in some ways. I'm always glad to wakeup and find that I have only been dreaming about fouling up at school.
Not much for dreams or ghosts-too many science classes I guess.
I had a rare chance to listen to Jasper last night. He played "Marshmallow World in the Winter" I was delighted to hear a Christmas song that had not been over-played this season. I adjusted my opinion when Jasper played the same song again a few minutes later.
I heard the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus sing -"Too Fat For The Chimney." Google associates Gisele Mackenzie with it. Any chance it's in the RH collection? alternatively can we hear "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas?"
morning, gang!! i was awakened early early this dark morning by the wind roaring alarmingly around the cabin--and yes, it's hurling east to west--prepare to hold onto your hats, guys in hats!
Dale, I sent you a little something relevant to Beth-Ann's request for non-overplayed Christmas songs--has it arrived yet?? pls check the pile of unopened mail :-)
to take the topic on a slight tilt, i've noticed that dreams in fiction almost always take on that overly coherent form--e.g., characters in mystery novels getting dream hints about the murderer.
i occasionally have a dream so real and vivid i wake with it in my consciousness, but not lately..even then, they rarely give me insight into my spiritual state. I did have a dream about one of my ex's a few months ago, scary, that in fact did bring a little insight to a current parallel situation that i hadn't realized was parallel...but no flying ghosts!
feeling pretty good today about not trying to travel to the midwest for christmas--seems there's always a big storm or terrible cold snap Dec. 23-26...
oops, i meant West to East! i'm all turned around this a.m.!
morning all, i have been traveling with the family to florida and we are the hearty minnesotans who wear sweatshirts when the high is 50 and the natives are trying to find parkas and warm caver.
dreams are a great topic dale. scrooge was going along merrily without questionong his direction until his dreams whacked him. therein lies the opportunity. i used to go to a shrink who had me keep track of my dreams because they tell you a bunch abourt what is going on in the turmoil of your life that you don't have the time energy or ability to deal with during the waking hours. it takes a bit of open mindedness as to what the dream can realate to in real life but the fragments are all you need to get started. if you get into it keep a notepad by the bed and the stuff is all there in the mornnin when you want to get to it in full. great way to implement a self improvement program in meaningful directions. dale this should be new years not christmas eve.
thanks to kay in utah for the heads up. we drove down to florida in a non eventful straight through drive on saturday but the return in a week could be a little more interesting
dale any john fahey hidden back in the archives?
a great holiday to dale mike and all you rh bloggers and friends. its been a geat year and i am looking forward to the coming season of rh camaraderie.
wow, you read my mind, dale--i was just yearning for some michael johnson :-)
Hello Dale and Heartlanders
THANKS for dusting off It Came Upon...by Beausolail (sp???) I ... Beautiful!
I sat here with teary eyes looking at the tree that we finally put up yesterday. My family enjoyed also, my laptop on full volume.
The funniest (scariest) dream for me: I wound my way through college while the tuition was free (my husband was faculty member) while kids were young. I was a waitress by night and weekend.
In my dream the Registrar of the college was reviewing my transcript to see whether I had finished a degree yet and he announced to me that even though I had taken all of the courses in the catalog I had not yet fulfilled the requirements for a degree.
My husband's dream: while working on his Master's research he was pumping fish stomachs and throwing them back into the water. He dreamt that the fish all threw up and he had no way of telling who had eaten what.
Merry Christmas to all ...thanks again for the song. I think I should have been a Cajun.
I sometimes remember my dreams - but they are never as coherent as Scrooge's. They are more likely involve different people in my life mooshed together into one person (for the purposes of the dream) or talking hedgehogs and that sort of thing...I once dreamed about trying to climb out of the code embedded on a web page - which took more work than it ought to have until I figured out to climb up the
thanks for the john fahey. great seasonal selections today too. you don't start too early but it is worth the wait.
Hi all,
Gosh, Tim, thanks for requesting John Fahey, that was marvelous! And be sure to go for a walk on the beach if you are near one, it's hilarious to walk in a sweatshirt and shorts while the lifeguards are bundled up in parkas ;-) No need to have an up-north type logo on your shirt - they know where you're from! I've spent a number of winter holidays in Florida after my dad retired there. As several suggested on the "Christmas in the tropics" blog the other day, doesn't quite seem right to see Santa Claus standing next to a palm tree.
I used to have vivid dreams but not so much anymore. Not sure if it is due to advancing age or the routine 2am dream of a barking dog that turns out to be my living alarm clock.
Merry Christmas and happy holiday storm to all!
I remember the most poignant of my dreams. For example, once I dreamed that Dale and Jim Ed interviewed Rick James and he played Super Freak. Can't forget that one!
Kay H - have you gone back to bed by now?
So the perfect storm is moving in just in time for Christmas. Why is God doing this to us? I want answers, Dr. Heartlander!
Dang. Computer crashed part way through the post...dang it.
I was climbing up the
Maybe there's something about computers or something in the archives? There's that one about working on the "data line" ("and it's oh boy, can ya code it?).
Happy Wednesday all! May your computers all behave and may you not have to climb out of a mountain of computer code to get anywhere...
I occasionally have famous people in my dreams I have talked with the likes of Paul Newman, Barack Obama, Joni Mitchell... wish I could remember more of them!
I'm with you Donna. Yes, the lovely storm has postponed our driving plans till Monday. The upside is now we'll be able to hear all those concerts on Christmas Eve and Day. :)
Merry C. all you Heartlanders!
because he loves you donna
dr heartlander
Dale, would the library have the Mamas & Papas version of Dream a Little Dream of Me? Cass Elliots voice is heavenly.
Enjoyed Fahey also! .Great suggestion.
Dale, would the library have the Mamas & Papas version of Dream a Little Dream of Me? Cass Elliots voice is heavenly.
I wimped out and didn't go to Bismarck today after all. We are on the cusp of the storm, and I don't want to get stuck in Bismarck for Christmas. I have a repeated dream that I haven't finished my dissertation and it takes several moments after I wake up to remind myself that I finished it in 1994. My husband is taking vocal lessons, and last week he started doing his vocal warm ups in his sleep. I thought he was having a nightmare! I hope everybody stays safe from the elements over the next few days.
Good point, Barbara in Robbinsdale. BTW - do you ever think about how lucky you are to live in a town with Dale's name in it??
He loves you more Tim, because you're in Florida for christsakes!
those grad school things sure hang with folks - pumping fish bellies? what we won't do....
my friend's 80 plus year-old husband would awake in a cold sweat saying they had to go to Washington State right now. there was an error in his dissertation and he must correct it (the one he did 55 years ago).
may all of your holiday dreams be sweet.
and yours, Donna, will continue to be weird. but hope your kids get there safely. (and all who are traveling arrive safely as well)
heck, no, donna, i'm still awake---i have a conference call with MPLS folks in a minute or two--so figured i might as well get up, feed the cat, make tea, etc...:-)
have a dreamy day,
My comment is fully off topic, so if this goes through moderation, feel free to not post this for public consumption!
My mom tells me that there is a way I can make a request, but I cannot find a link. She would LOVE to hear Snow Days by Trip Shakespeare.
To get myself on topic, it would be a dream come true and she would remember it always!
how about greg brown dream on little dreamer
I remember a dream fragment from last night in which I was walking around with a small dog tucked under one arm.
This may have been a gentle reminder that I have petsitting duties to attend to over the next few days. But the dog didn't explicitly say so.
I'm with you, Dale. I prefer the idea of ghosts applying a poignant and ironic third degree rather than (essentially) doing it to myself.
I usually don't remember my dreams. My wife makes up for my deficiency though. She constructs episodic scenarios of fear and anxiety.
Kay - I'm with you. The whole "hero solves the mystery by dreaming about it" is, IMHO, really a slough for a writer to do to the reader.
I have decided that people who blog are of the nicest sort.
Sweet dreams and God bless us, everyone.
Just thought of something - Tim, did you ever play Tiny Tim in a pageant?
(I cannot shut up this morning.)
ha ha, i can't shut up this morning, either, sister!
Now, if a hero-type dreams about a crime or a tricky situation he's trying to solve and there's something that sparks a different inquiry or reminds him/her of something that -leads- to a chain of deduction, that I could see working. But to just suddenly solve the whole thing by a dream is just too easy and becomes 'info-dumpish' for the reader to have to plow through.
Hi Dale,
Thank you for the lovely music and have safe travels and a merry Christmas!
Okay - today was clearly not my day to post from the home computer. What keeps getting cut off is the part about climbing out of the web code up the opening brackets/side carets for the code...must be either how that character gets interpreted by the blog software or maybe I'm still dreaming about computers misbehaving...
interesting , the boys and i were at the afternoon performance today also! gotta say that altho i appreciated the fact that they shortened it, it just wasn't as fun and scary as it was the last time i saw it (a few yrs ago)
Peter Michael Goetz and Nathaniel Fuller and Richard Ooms and Richard I. were fab as always
boys liked it mostly , maybe they were too young?
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