I was having one of those flying dreams last night. In the last few years I’ve gotten pretty good at flying in my dreams. When I was younger I would have to get a running start and then only float for a few feet. That’s barely worthy of the term Dream Flying. Then it got to a point where I could float, but I had no control over it at all. I remember one dream from that time, my late twenties, where I was stuck in the branches of a leafless tree, like a lost balloon. But in the past few years, I can actually fly. Not always with the best control, and not faster than a speeding bullet, say, but I can control my direction and altitude with some effort. It seems to have a lot to do with confidence. Overall, I fly about as well as the Greatest American Hero, but with less terrified screaming. Sometimes bystanders don’t even notice, but sometimes they’re amazed. When the dream people notice I’m flying, I like to show off a little bit, because nobody else can fly in these dreams. I once flew through a second story restaurant and heard a dream person say, “Hey, it’s that flying guy again.” I guess I’m gaining a reputation with the people who populate my dreams. So, I’ve got that going for me.
In last night’s dream I was hanging out with two of my closest friends from when I was living in Los Angeles. For some reason, we were walking through some kind of school campus. I said, “Hey guys, I’ve got something I want to show you!” I gave a little running start, and hopped into the air, then proceeded to float right back down. They were suitably unimpressed. I muttered something about needing to concentrate and being nervous in front of an audience, about which my gay male friend made a joke about “performance anxiety.” But the next try, I got airborne and circled around. “Pretty cool, eh?”
My female friend was still unimpressed. “Yeah, I guess. But what is it good for?” My subconscious totally has her number, because that’s just exactly how she’d react if I could actually fly in real life. I love her dearly, but she sometimes has insanely high standards.
I said, “Well, I enjoy it, but I guess that’s it. I’m not super strong or super fast of bullet-proof or anything like that.” Then the dream ended, in the abrupt way that dreams sometimes end, but I felt a little blue about it.
Thanks, subconscious image of my friends, way to kill dream flying for me!
Once I accepted that falling is similar to flying, I realized that I am an expert at dream-flying!