Dreams. . .

Awakening from a dream a few days ago, the details totally escaped me. I did, however, have a sense it was so earth bound; every thing I’d been doing was limited by natural science laws. I wondered why.

In some dreams I’ve flown like an eagle, soaring above Earth. In those dreams there was a wire mesh high up that I couldn’t get through. Those dreams went on for a number of years until the last one, in which I was able to slip by the wire. I know those dreams were symbolic, and were stuff in my unconscious mind trying to speak in images to my conscious mind.

The last few days I’ve pondered just why my unconscious mind would obey natural laws. In a dream I could do anything, right?

As I thought about it, I know the difference between dreams that are symbolic and those that are more reality based, with normal Earthly limits.

That started me thinking about limits that my mind imposes on me when I’m not asleep.

Science, as taught in school, taught me certain things about the natural world. I believe them. I obey them. Other things I just somehow learned, and accepted, that were just a part of living. Cultural Norms.

In the 1950s and 60s, like others, I learned to question things. My generation wasn’t the first to question “common sense.” The truth is that the Earth is not flat, and the Sun doesn’t revolve around Earth.

Yet there persists some nagging questions about things learned.

Over two thousand years ago, Yeshua warned we’d been taught wrong, and set about to teach Truth. Check out His “Sermon on the Mount,” for instance.

But, one might point out, parts of the Bible are like my dreams, filed with parables, symbolic imagery. Other parts of the Bible are based on historical fact, though some people dispute even that. Which parts are meant literally? Which are symbolic? Which parts could be either, or both?

That brings me to Mike, pictured in the photo. We met early one foggy morning. He was walking along California’s Coastal Highway, Highway 1, near Morro Bay. When I saw him carrying a cross, I stopped We talked for a moment, then he headed north while I went on to work. We stayed in touch, and eventually got together in Big Sur.

Mike had carried the cross from the East Coast. He had an interesting story. Well, a lot of them. It started in church one day when he heard a simple scripture.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. "

Matthew 16:24

Mike thought about it. I forget how long he thought about it, but eventually he made a wooden cross and hit the road. Just like that.

Mike walked all day, and slept where he stopped. Along the way, he met a lot of wonderful people.

Mike learned about their lives, their stories, and made many friends. Many offered him food, many a place to sleep out of bad weather. When Mike got sick, a person gave him a place to stay. One man gave him a pickup truck and a travel trailer. From that point he’d walk carrying his cross, then hitch-hike back to get his truck.

Mile also ruffled more than a few feathers. He told me he’d been laughed at many times. Ridiculed. Harassed. He’d been beaten. One town actually ran him out.

Throughout Mike’s journey, G-D provided what he needed, when he needed it. It’s not a journey for everyone. But it was Mike’s journey, and it was his story.

More important than Mike’s story was the Truth shared along the way. Mike shared Jesus’s Story.

Modern science imposes limits. Religion imposes limits, too. It seems to me True Faith leaps beyond Earthly limits and the self-imposted limits of dreams.