FriendBurst Blog

That GE fridge wasn’t the only Albatross to haunt the department recently.  There were the Whirlpool Cabrios – Darth Vader Edition.  Okay, that’s not what they’re really called, but you can see from the picture, that’s what they look like.  At one point, I printed out a picture of Vader off the internet, taped it to the underside of the lid with a hand written caption: “Luke, I AM your washing machine!“

For three months, these beasts sat on the clearance area as a pair of floor models.  Now, they are truly amazing machines, but with a starting list price of $1999 EACH, it took a while for the successive markdowns to reach the point where they became a “deal”.  When they finally got sold, it was a tremendous relief that these ominous looking beasts were gone.

Two nights ago, I had a very odd “work dream.”  I was handing the five dollar bill back to my supervisor, not because the fridge had been returned, but because I had allowed the Darth Washer to come back.

Yesterday, on a busy Saturday, it was just me and another guy working the appliance floor, while a familiar looking customer lurked near the desk, waiting his turn to be helped.  It so happened my colleague got to him first.

“Yeah,” I overheard him say, “I bought that black washer and dryer set off the floor a while back.  They BOTH have problems!  I want to return them.”

My knees turned to jell-o and my heart skipped a beat when I heard this.  Not because of what had happened, but because I had dreamed of it happening that very night before!!

Now, it having been a little more than two months since the guy had bought them, they were outside our normal return policy, so my colleague had to get a manager involved.  After two months being out, what are the odds of them being returned on THAT VERY DAY?!?

I have known people in my life who honestly believed that their dreams could and did predict the future.  I have always tended to believe them, despite how completely un-scientific and magical that may sound.  I am, on the whole, a fairly rational guy who has more than a touch of skepticism for the supernatural.  How, and more importantly, why would I have a dream that predicted such a specific, random and completely unpredictable and unlikely event?

How is simple.  See, as Einstein first postulated, we can think of time as the 4th Dimension.  We perceive it differently than the other three dimensions due to our perspective, but time has similar characteristics to up, down, left and right.

Imagine you were walking along a straight line, looking at the ground, when suddenly, the ground gets a bit darker.  If your universe consists of what you can see on the ground, you’d have no explanation for the source of the sudden darkness.  Looking up, you see a big tree along your path, and behind that, the Sun which has been illuminating your path.  You have stepped into the shadow of the tree, perceiving it’s effects well before reaching it’s position in a limited perception, linear universe.

That’s how we can dream of things yet to come.  They are “shadows” cast in the 4th Dimension.  Now, I’ve always thought that the bigger the “tree”, the more likely it is to cast a shadow on the path of dreams we are walking.  Why would such a minor event, a virtual shrubbery, in which I had no role, cast shadows on this dream walker?

I write this blog this morning because of the dreams I’m waking up from today.  Last night, I dreamed that my life had totally changed for the better.  In the dream, I had lost a bunch of weight, I’d quit smoking, I was living in a much nicer place.  I was playing guitar with collaborators and writing songs with a mastery I have yet to achieve.  Now, it’s not like I’ve been really depressed in real life lately, but in this dream, I was really, really happy.

If there were a system by which one could lose weight by dreaming it away, it’s inventor would be a very rich man indeed!  No, the changes I had accomplished in my dream only come through work.  It will require a change in how I live my life and what I choose to do with my time.  It will require changes in my priorities, discipline and motivations.  It will require I resist the comfort of instant gratification in exchange for a better, more fulfilling, healthy life.

The reason I dreamed of that washer and dryer being returned was to prepare me for the dream I had last night.  It’s God telling me that dreams can be more than just wishful thinking; they are shadows of realities yet to come. I am convinced, right now, that not only do I want to make these changes, but that I will make these changes.

Starting tomorrow with returning that $5 bill to my supervisor.  No, I didn’t cause the return of the albatross, but giving it back will be a symbolic way of making that first dream come true, as I will make last night’s dream come true.