The Common Good

My dreams are always disjointed and in specific scenes. My mind sees everything as a stage performance or some other entertainment medium, not as real life with lots of mundane details thrown in for good measure. I like the interesting filler material during normal waking hours, but it’s just as well I pass over it when sleeping; there is nothing worse than waking up just before a dream ends, so let’s skip over the unnecessary details and get this dream finished up. Sometimes I remember enough details to put together a storyline, if I transcribe my notes soon enough. My dreams fade into distant memory much quicker than my memories I create during waking hours. With that as an intro, here are the “minutes” of a dream I had overnight 10/1/2012 that I find interesting. Something in my life must have prompted this. I can think of several things, and it could be a melting together of different issues. Here is the dream:

I was on some type of outing or vacation, not necessarily a pleasure trip, but I recall beautiful colors in the sky in several scenes. Sunrise or sunset, I don’t know. Nature was a constant, and I observed everything from a ground level structure that was fully enclosed and protected from the dangers outside. A field with high grass, brownish, like un-harvested hay, stood at an even level in the foreground, reaching out as far as my dream allowed me to take notice.

A bear and a tiger grappled in front of me, and I zoomed in for a closer look, but I remained in the shelter. The zoom lens embedded in my brain was at work. Both animals were partially hidden in the tall grass, like a well staged scene, intended to keep the view easy to watch. As I observed from my comfortable place in the wilderness, the two were fighting to the death. First I saw the bear winning, biting and shaking his head violently, with hair and flesh in his mouth, ripping at the tiger, then the fight turned and the tiger was inflicting the same damage to the bear. Later I looked out and at first glance it appeared the bear was winning. I saw him on the top of the heap, ripping flesh loose from its combatant, nearing an irreversible victory, and I then realized the two had joined together, and the bear and tiger were destroying the symbolic king of the animal kingdom, a lion.

Working together can perform miracles, but strife neutralizes a strong, powerful body. The enemy watches and smiles, waiting until both sides are weak before pouncing upon the weak, easy target. I can think of so many applications of this principle. Employees that prove themselves unable to make positive changes because of bickering among one another, religious organizations that fragment over ideals and power struggles, political parties that should work for a common good, etc. The list goes on. A united enemy only needs to sit and wait. Their time will come. And the defense will be negligible after enough time has passed.