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TomorrowFeb 02 '12 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line I had this dream, and it made me think. It was unseasonably warm, feeling more like late April than early March, with a mild breeze causing the still-bare branch to gently sway. My partner and I had received a call to a well-kept home, registered to a Alice Garner, in a nice neighborhood. I approached the door and knocked. A woman answered who resembled Teri Garr, the actress who portrayed the little boy’s mother in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, only a bit older than was Ms. Garr in that film. I introduced myself and asked, “What can we do for you, ma’am?” The woman looked a bit embarrassed. “It seemed necessary at the time, but now it seems silly. I suddenly felt that it was incredibly important to call you. I still don’t know why. I checked everything, and can’t find anything wrong.” My partner made a noise, intended only for my ears, that I knew meant he was ready to move on. I was more in a “build police-community relations” mood, though. “Did you hear, or even smell, anything out of place?” Ms. Garner stammered a bit. “No, no . . . nothing.” I handed her one of my old-fashioned calling cards. She initially looked at it like something alien, then took it. “Just call me if anything turns up, ma’am.” “Thank you.” We turned away and began walking to the squad car. I activated my handheld. The date at the top startled me. *** When I awoke from that dream, I wanted two things. I wanted to recapture that fit-and-whole-and-healthy feeling of being that police officer, instead of being a fifty-one-year-old man with a spinal cord injury and paralysis below the armpits. And, I wanted to remember the date that had startled me awake. Then, I realized why the date in the dream had startled me. The date was March 4, 2060. Not only is that far into the future, and a nice future at that, but it would be my one hundredth birthday. Physicists talk about a probabilistic universe or multi-verse, where our every action and every decision splits our universe in two: a future with those possibilities that can now happen, and a future where some possibilities are lost. Each of those futures contains infinite possibilities, and will keep splitting. Given my current situation, is it likely that I will be healthy and fit and up on my feet on my hundredth birthday? No. Is it possible? When every future supposedly contains an infinite number of possibilities, I cannot say No. I am a clinical psychologist but I am not big on dream interpretation in the way that some are. However, I do believe they sometimes do mean something. So, then, what do I do with this dream and my interpretation of it? It did seem to mean something to me. I will live my life as well as I can. I will try to make wise decisions and take needed, thoughtful action. I will thus aim for the best possible future, regardless of what comes my way. I look forward to the future. I look forward to tomorrow. I look forward.  |
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