Thursday, June 1, 2017

Potomac Dream

I've dreamed of the future since elementary school. For the record, it's a useless talent. When your days tend to blur together, dreaming of the future normally amounts to a faint sense of déjà vu when real life catches up to the dream. (This is not uncommon.)

Dreams are fleeting things, experiences that fade in the light of the morning sun. But a recent dream rather seared itself onto my consciousness.

I sat next to a bridge in Washington, D.C. on the edge of the Potomac. The ground was green with grass. A podium was set up with the river behind it, early in the morning. It's Inauguration Day.

I sat in the second row of a children's choir. I was full-grown so I have no idea why. Richard Nixon was sitting next to me. I knew it was 2017 and Nixon looked as old as he would have been if he'd lived this long.

The Rock got up to speak, and went on a rant about the evils of Obamacare. (Is Dwayne Johnson a conservative? Has he spoken on the ACA? I have no idea.) I saw Paul Ryan standing in the background. His eyes were a pure black, save for yellow pinprick pupils.

The Rock finished speaking and Nixon stood up to accept the Presidency. He turned to me then, and shook his head before he walked to the podium. He spoke for a bit, stated that he was resigning effective immediately, and walked away. Then I woke up filled with a certainty that Donald Trump would not finish out his term.

I'm not a skilled oneiromancer and, let's face it, this is all probably conjecture based on a bad Chipotle dinner. But this was a couple months before the Rock started joking about politics, and I don't trust Paul Ryan one bit. There's some new bit of nastiness coming from that man, mark my words.

But the main thing is it was a hopeful dream, in its way, and hope is a precious thing. Maybe it'll amount of nothing. But maybe, just this once, the tide will end up sweeping the big monster away before it can do too much damage.