"Gentlebeings,
I bid you welcome.
Welcome to the blood,
to the sweat, to the tears.
Welcome to your places
on the wall."Admiral Constanza Stark,
"Address to War College Graduates," CY 9764
I remember dreams. Mostly, anyway. And I always remember nightmares. Including the one where I lived my own death. Or is that died my own death. Whatever it was, I was there and still believe I will die exactly as I saw it.
Sometimes I dream the same dream over and over. When I was young I only had four dreams � and they repeated like clockwork. Two of them were nightmares, so half the time I woke screaming. I still wake up, but I don�t scream anymore. Maybe that�s what being a grown-up means.
Last week I had an odd dream, a first of its kind dream. I wrote it down right away, so the details wouldn�t get fuzzy � as dream details often do with the passing of time and the rising of the sun. I�ve not tried interpreting it yet � perhaps you can.
I am a player in a game made up of two parts.
In the first part I�m in a goal with two defenders in front. If the offense can push a red ball into the goal, the defenders disappear and I must join the second part of the game.
In the second part of the game, I am against a wall with the red ball in my hand. The rules are simple:
1. I must throw the ball as hard as I can into a group of offensive players.
2. I am free to leave the wall at any time, but I must be touching the wall when the ball is touching me or I lose the game.
3. When an offensive player picks up the red ball, they can hit me with it, or they can keep it.
4. If I am touching the wall when the ball hits me, I get to throw the ball again.
5. If I am NOT touching the wall when the ball hits me, I lose the game.
6. If the offensive player �keeps� the red ball I �win� unless I am touching the wall. I cannot win if I am touching the wall when the player decides to keep the ball.
The strategy is that I must quickly determine if the player approaching me is going to try and hit me, or keep the ball. Touch the wall, or let go. Touch the wall and I will always be safe, but I can never win the game. Let go, and I can only win if the player keeps the red ball. If the player decides, at the last minute, to hit me, I will lose.
I woke up before I found out how the game ended, but it sure sounds like a game a person like me can�t win, doesn�t it?
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