Last night I dreamed about a late teen friend who was now an adult, around 40 years old. As a young person, he was a jokester, intelligent and though a lot about himself and his skills in anything he tried (drawing, martial arts, computers, science). In the dream, he was a highway patrol officer, and pulled me over. He listed the things I did that were against the law, most if not all of which I’m pretty sure were made up. I laughed as I thought he was joking around and we would have a good laugh. I discovered he wasn’t and gave him the obeisance he expected. As I did so, and we talked he crossed out some of the infractions.
I had the expectation that we were still close, still young at heart, still able to see past the absurdity of adult concerns, we weren’t. He was filled with things that seemed important to him and very interested in using the law (power, force) against me. As I flattered his ego, he went a little easier. We were strangers, completely unknown, unfeeling.
We become strangers to ourselves, lose connection with our self and in turn with others. Other people’s concerns and plights do not concern us and are not seriously considered. What must always be enforced is our point of view, our conclusions, our “settled science” until that ignorance yields the blackest deeds committed against the most innocent “are enough to make hell itself shudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very Devil to tremble and palsy.”
Breathings 