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.