Daydreams with Dave

“Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. Throw two planets into space, and they will fall one on the other. Place two enemies in the midst of a crowd, and they will inevitably meet; it is a fatality, a question of time; that is all.”
Jules Verne

Daydreams with Dave

If I’m lucky, I take three naps a week for about thirty minutes each. A short sleep is good for me and makes me feel refreshed for the rest of the day. My problem is that I worry about stuff all of the time.

To relax to fall asleep for a nap, I do something I call Take Me Away. I might review a boss fight in the World of Warcraft. More often I sort of fantasize about the same things that you do: Time Travel, Super Powers, Winning the Lottery, The Perfect Bank Robbery, Being Thirteen Again and starting over but with my adult mind and memories.

Because I return to these over and over again, some of them have become quite elaborate. It is fun and non-real and I can finally set aside my worries and rest.

1. Time Travel
   • This is usually about surviving in the past with modern day knowledge. Ultimately, I conclude that I’d not do very well.
   • Baghdad at its best, maybe the 9th century. When it was called the Center of Learning and people would travel to the city, when it was a literary society and poets were revered. The Arabian Nights and all of that. How would I, dressed in jeans and sneakers and a tee shirt walk into that city and survive and be successful?
   • The Old West. Arizona in 1810. A knife in my back pocket, a lighter and a handful of change and I face the weather, Indians, isolation and more. Do I use my knowledge and walk to the Colorado River and North? Maybe I build a fort and start breeding cattle or something.
2. The Perfect Bank Robbery
   • One is to have an accomplice shoot a cop in the knee across the town. When “Officer Down” goes over their radios, every cop goes to the scene; leaving me an easy shot at the bank.
   • Why not be the construction contractor who builds the bank? When making the sewer lines and stuff, build a tunnel and a way into the vault. Wait twenty years and rob it.
   • How about they just give me the money? Fake ’em out, make them think I’m someone I’m not; like an FBI guy.
3. Being Thirteen Again
   • This is a pretty common theme that we’ve seen in books and movies.
   • Of course, invest in Apple and Microsoft when they began public trading; blah, blah, blah. I know the future.
   • The big problem with this imagining is that I don’t have any real regrets. I’m happy with how my life turned out.
   • I’ve already experimented with drugs and alcohol, thank goodness I wouldn’t do that again.
   • The real musing is this: I have loved and lost, I am hard-hearted as an older adult. Could I ever be innocent or open enough again to find that First Love? That is the interesting thought line. Being thirteen again and starting over is no good if you can’t find love again.
4. Winning the Lottery
   • Typical with all of us, right?
   • I’d buy a big farmhouse and change the barn into a dance space. I know all the “how tos” of the floor, seats, lights and sound.
   • Throw some money at choreographers and dancers and hire them for six weeks to come and work. A perfect gig.
   • The fun is thinking it through. Do I need to lease a fleet of SUVs for the guys to drive to town? Do I need them to show their work? Could it grow and we bring in critics?
   • Candidly, I don’t think about this too often. I don’t buy lottery tickets! So, when my sister gives me one; I have some thoughts on if I’d win big.
5. Super Powers
   • Everyone wants to fly, right? Here is how I think it through.
     • The first is telekinesis, telepathy and levitation then flight. What if the reason we all think about this is because it is our next step in evolution? If I were to have the break-through, how would I let the world know without being killed?
     • The second is the First Century Church. The Apostles were everyday men, workers and fishermen, they got drunk and fell asleep at the Last Supper! But, that first century, they did all kinds of super-natural things that are promised to all Christians. What went wrong? They did mass healings, they fed the poor, they teleported to other cities!
       I think I know why. What if all that were possible and always has been? What if I were the first in almost 2000 years to figure it out but it is available to all? How could I get everyone advanced or up to speed without being killed or grabbed by the CIA?
   • Super Powers wouldn’t come from a radioactive spider or gamma rays. It would be semi-barely-plausible. The next step in evolution or it’s been available to everyone for a long time but people need to be taught.
   • It’s a fun idea, imagining going to hospitals and healing or going to MIT and blowing them away.
   • The other part of it is we are in modern times. If, back then, they ran super fast or teleported, what about today — could I fill the power grid just by putting my hand on an outlet and asking God?

What do you daydream about?