Thursday, October 23, 2008

Sympathy

This month I've blogged a lot about my dreams. They continue to annoy me because they are almost always about school. Especially on school nights, they are about school. So, I spend the majority of my waking hours with these people, and now I have to spend my sleeping hours with them, too.

Do folks in the real world have this problem? Or do you just dream about monsters?

I talked to a friend last night. I called him, frantically, to see what had happened. Turns out a good friend of his died on Monday, which is a shame. This person was around 40 years old. Maybe not even 40. I want my friend to know that I'm here for phone calls or whatever else I can do, long-distance. I hope his dreams are benign, but even in saying that, I know they are not.

Sympathy can be difficult. It isn't as difficult as going through the real crisis, but it has its own qualities that are challenging. I know exactly what he's going through, and because of that, I can feel the pain. As a teacher, I think this is where much of my dream anxiety comes from. All teachers know exactly what those children are going through, on some level, because we've all been there. We've all been through school--plenty of school. And we are steeped in it while teaching them. We can sympathize with the children, and are sympathetic people, in general.

Right now, it's all a bit much for me.

3 comments:

  1. I still dream about school and I haven't been in school for a couple of decades. It's always the same... I can't remember my locker combination.

    Sympathy is difficult. I always want to say something profound that will take some of the pain away, but I don't think it's possible.

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  2. There are lots of people who have jobs that go home with them... for many reasons. My BnN managers are so pressured to make sales each month that I am sure they go home and dream about giving inspiring talks that get each of us to sell, sell, sell! I dream about selling books-- about trying to find books that don't seem to be anywhere in the building.

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  3. A little sympathy goes a long way-- and often the less said the better.

    ...sympathy for children, well, it's downright bad if it lowers expectations or gives them an excuse not to be the best they can be.

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