I think most people have gone through the thought experiment of your home being on fire and you have only one minute to grab what is most important to you and leave the house. Partners, children, pets seem to normally top that list...then important papers, etc. Last night I dreamt that I and my family had to evacuate and leave the area. There was some political coup that happened and we needed to flee or die. In the dream, I was the age that I am now, but my family was the age that they were when we moved from Sandy in 1999. And for some reason, most likely safety, we had temporarily relocated all of our belongings to the house 2-doors down from our old house in Sandy. Oddly enough, I have dreamt of hiding from people in this house multiple times, although I think that where this house is in my dream, actually doesn't exist on the street that I lived on. If it does exist, it is a house that I have never been inside of either.
We had six hours to gather all that we could independently carry to flee. For some reason food was not a concern or electronics. I remember that at one point I was worried about if we needed money, and not being able to recall how much I could take out of a ATM without the daily withdraw limit being reached. I knew that I wouldn't have enough time to go through all of my pictures, so I grabbed a recent stack of photos that I have yet to put away in the photo storage box. I had gone through and scanned some old photos for a recent presentation. I was more focused on what books did I need to bring with me. I could only fill up a backpack. So began this process of trying to pick the books that were going to be the pinnacle book for every reading genre. Sadly, I do not remember this book list, although I did have a dictionary and a thesaurus. As we are about to go, I realize that I did not have any Turkish books with me. I picked two Turkish/English dictionaries, one with older words that had some Ottoman carry-overs and then a more modern one. I wasn't sure what Turkish literature books I wanted, but I decided that it would be worthless to have the dictionaries and a literature book without having a grammar book as well. By this time, whoever was pursuing us were going house by house on our street, and were currently in our old house... it was time to go or die. But I could not leave without a grammar book. My family is gone at this point. And I'm jumping over boxes, looking through bookshelf after bookshelf. I'm finding lots of old textbooks, but they are too bulky and numerous. What I'm really looking for is my Underhill Turkish Grammar book. I can't find it anywhere. By the third time I'm re-scanning the shelves looking for it, the enemy is marching up the driveway. By the time I see its red cover and have the book clutched to my chest, they are breaking down the door.....And I wake up.
Drowsy still, I berate myself for not packing underwear or grabbing any of my Masonic rituals in my dream.
It's a half-hour before my alarm is to go off.... so I try to go back to sleep.... only to find myself right back in the dream....searching the shelves, trying to find my Underhill again.
Any takers on what this means?
Incidentally.... my Underhill was rather easy to find this morning. Even took a picture....in case I forget again ;)
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