By Heinz Richter
We rarely remember any of our dreams, but occasionally we do and some of those stick in our minds forever. I wonder if Sigmund Freud would have anything to say about this one.
I dreamt talking to a person; I don’t remember what the conversation was about. But I do remember that this person was suffering from an extremely bad case of bad breath. I didn’t want to be rude, but that breath was impossible to ignore. I tried to turn my head away to one side, but that didn’t help. So I tried the other side. No difference. So I nonchalantly moved one of my hands over my face and over my nose. I was hoping this might bring some relief. But to no avail. Meanwhile the person continues to talk. I had to do something. In a less polite move I put one of my arms over my nose. No relief. Even turning around, away from the person didn’t make any difference. I kept on trying, weaving, moving but nothing helped, the ugly smell persisted.
I don’t know if our brains have a safety trigger in situations like this, but I finally woke up. Even that didn’t help. I was lying on my side when I noticed Ulli, our dog with her head right in front of my face, panting like crazy. She needed to go outside.
Ulli is long gone, but we still get a good laugh whenever we remember that story.
Ulli was a "dream" dog in more ways than one!
ReplyDeleteFreud called these "Dreams of convenience." As we incorporate Something that's happening in our environment into our dream so we don't have to deal with it and can keep sleeping...Something like a phone ringing for instance. This dog-breath story would have given Freud a chuckle, and he could have used this tale to make his point.
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