Dreams and Memories

This is more of a search for knowledge than my usual posts. I am breaking this into two distinct questions that I would like to see an answer to.


Dreams.

How do you dream?

I am one of those people that has a quite high retention rate for my dreams. I can usually recall about 90% of any previous night's dream.

In a majority of my dreams I see color, and I have always had full sensory acuity. I smell, taste and feel the stimulus of the dream. This has, in fact, woke me up on more occasions than I like.

Most of the time, in my dreams, I have no control over the dream... in some cases, even though I know what the outcome or result of something is going to be, I still cannot do anything to stop it. This has happened many times, and give one the feeling like you have when you are watching a movie you have seen several times, and you know that the person should not open the door to let the killer in, yet they do anyway.

Of my dreams, and this is the first time I have shared this with anyone but my wife, there is one that stands out.

In the dream, I am about the same age I am now. I learn that I have cancer. The rest of the dream covers about a full year as I fight the cancer and follow the treatments. At several points in the dream I look in a mirror, and I actually do see myself, as I would probably look while going through Chemo and Radio therapy, complete with weight and hair loss. In the end of my dream, I am lying in me bed at home, with machines attached to me, and I look around to see all my friends gathered around me, some touching me, others just looking. My wife is standing next to me crying and holding my hand. My thought at this point was "This is the best way to go, with all my friends to help me through." I closed my eyes and I heard the heart monitor go flat.

I remember very vividly waking up and gasping for air, sweating to the point that the sheets were completely soaked. I then went in and proceeded to sit on the couch and cry. From that point on, my opinion of death and dying have been completely altered. I really am no longer afraid of either any more. Not that I WANT to die, but I almost feel like I have been there, or at least very close to it.

Here are my questions:

1. How do you dream?
2. Can something as simple as a dream change our lives so dramatically that it can alter who we are and how we think?
3. Can we learn from our dreams?


Here is the second section.

Memories

When you think about yourself or something that has happened to you in the past, how do you see yourself or the incident?

When I recall something that happened in the past, whether it was ten minutes ago or ten years ago, I always see it in the third person. It is as though I am seeing it from the point of view of a camera boom that was following me that day. I see myself and the event in question, but I never see things through my own eyes.

The questions:

1. When you recall something from your past, how do you see it... from 1st or 3rd person? If you see it from the 2nd person, then you are more talented than I.
2. Do you occasionally dwell on a memory to the point that it becomes an issue?


Thanks for humoring me in this little quest. Unfortunately I cannot say that I am doing this for school or and particular paper. I am doing this mostly from curiosity.

Thanks.

What is the problem?

WARNING... This article is fueled by anger... Please read with this in mind.


I am an American.

Our system is not perfect, and some of our politicians could be replaced by trained monkeys (or are already) but I love this country none-the-less.

As you may have notice through reading some of my other entries, my opinion of immigration is not a problem. I am, as I have said many times before, Pro-Legal Immigration, but all the recent hype and the "Walk-out" planned for today has me angry in ways that I just cannot put into words without severe editing.

How is it that people think that they have the right to sneak into a country, work "off the books" and in some cases not contribute to the country's wellbeing? What makes this worse is that some of the supporters of these illegal immigrants are people that made it to the country legally... ones that worked to get into the country through the proper channels. I am truely mystified as to where their logic comes from.

Why is it that people in Mexico are complaining about us wanting to close our borders, and threatening to boycot American owned business' in Mexico because we want to? And it seems that they are not even getting that right. Some of the business' that they are boycotting are actually Mexican owned.

Personally, if I owned a business, and I had an employee Walk out for this joke of a protest, then I would be hppy to let that person go... as long as they took all their personal belonging with them... because they would have no job to come back to. I hope that employers take that step, because this should not be tolerated at all.

Now, to explain, I feel the same way about it if the situation was different. If this was a day of protest for any group, and people walked off their job, then they should still get the axe. Fire them, on the spot. Not because they are protesting, but because of what they are doing... it's called Job Abandonment, and it is not only wrong, but it is unfair to the other employees that are not protesting and to the people to which your company provides a service.

Why do I feel this way? Because I am an American. I believe that as an American, you are willing to put the needs of the country above the needs of yourself. I believe that we are all part of a whole, not senveral million individual parts working for our own goal. I am willing to lay down my life to protect this country, and have volunteered to do so once already. I feel that any act that promotes illegal entry into this country is an act that will potentially support Terrorism.

So my question to you who enter this country illegally is this: What have you done for America lately?

In reality, all of us, as citizens, should keep in mind that we are not only acting for ourselves. We are truely part of a global community, and our actions are being watched. Not only by those outside the USA, but by those closer to home... our neighbors and our children. If we continue to live our lives for ourselves alone, then we truely are seeing the end of a great nation, and SHOULD just let the Mexicans, and anyone else, cross the border.

The illegal immigration is not just about the people that come into the country, either. It is also about what they do to get here. These people are a walking environmental disaster. In the process of crossing the border, they are leaving tons of garbage at various points along the border. Please visit the Desert Invasion web site to see pictures and video of this problem... my question after seeing this was Where are all the crybaby environmentalists? and why are they not also getting their backs up about this. These illegals are trashing National Parks and public lands, not to mention the private land on the borders that they are trashing.

So, in closing, not only is illegal immigration becoming a political and economic issue, it is also an ecologic issue.

This saddens me and makes me angry. No one should stand by and LET this happen and still consider themselves proud to be an American. The people who stand by and let this happen without trying to do something are no better than the people helping the illegals into the country. Yes... INACTION is wrong, this is not "Someone else's problem." In addition, the people on the borders that are assisting the illegals cross the border should also be rounded up and sent down to Mexico.

The US Border Patrol cannot do it alone, so I encourage you to help. You can start by contacting the Minuteman Project... they can show you what you can do to help.

Thanks for reading this, and I apologize for and grammar or spelling errors.