My testimony

I have not been a good man. I have been stupid. I have been prideful. I have made many poor decisions. I have cheated. I am 52 years old and am reaping what I have sown. Unfortunately I have become too soon old and too late smart. Not that I'm all that smart! Just, in these, my later days, I now can clearly see some of the stupid foolish things I have done. If there is a hereafter, I hope my forebears will forgive me when I join them. If there is reincarnation, I embrace my karma and hope I will be absolved of my sins in a few thousand cycles. If my beliefs are correct and nothing further awaits me, then I am further saddened that I may not make amends in some sense. A good man should not lie, cheat, or steal A good man should protect those weaker than he A good man should be thoughtful of others needs and help others whenever possible A good man should believe in honor, duty, love, and never desert his comrades. Maybe someone may read this... I doubt it. But if you do. Try to be a good man. Be loyal to your comrades, remember there is something bigger than you that you should protect.

Dreams

Last night I had this interesting dream... I was up on top of the Statue of Liberty with a small group of people, we were refurbishing it a little. Mostly just painting. But every now and again someone would offer up a suggestion of what to do next. I suggested getting the Torch re-lit as I thought that would be a nice touch. Anyway we were tied off, but one member of the group kept straying to the end of his rope, then unclipping it and going just a bit further, so I clipped his rope into mine, so he would be safe. It became time to go and as we gathered up our stuff and prepared to descend inside the Statue, I noticed a section inside the statue that had a young lad in it... But not a young lad from this century, he looked like he was from the 19th century. I talked to him and he basically said he had decided never to leave, had stayed and been living off of whatever scraps tourists would give him when they came up... The fact of his being from the 19th century was surprising to me, so I wanted to explore within the Statue... He led me into his section, and there was this big clock with a bell that would gong out the hours... As I looked around I discovered a little apartment, and he told me that there had been apartments inside for the workers who built the thing. And I began searching and more and more little rooms seemed to be inside, then I saw bodies, dessicated dead people, and wondered why they were there. Ghosts of these people appeared to me, and at one point I began talking to them. They had loved the Statue so much they had decided to never leave. One ghost took me by the hand and took me on a tour and it was all very marvelous, so many rooms all within the statue with people (ghosts really) 'living' there all going about their business as they had when alive, more or less. There was a post master, cook, dining room, ballrooms all sorts of things and none of these ghosts was frighting, they were all friendly and enjoyed showing me how they had lived... Finally we went to this terrace, a lovely white marble terrace with little gardens and it was surrounded by a huge man made fountain area with mermaids living in it, they were not the pretty girl mermaids of legend, more they were sort of female, but with large mouths with shark teeth in their mouths... But they were friendly too, happy to stop from swimming about to chat. I turned to my guide because in my dream state I had finally realized a truth. I asked him if this was all a fantasy and he said yes, he had created this imagery for all of them that lived in the Statue as a way of giving them some more beauty to enjoy and he was sharing it with me. Suddenly I understood and asked how it was that as I had been on the TOP of the Statue, now I was one level above the water and he said that that had been part of the fantasy he had created just for me, as we had explored room after room, apartment after apartment, and it had felt like I was moving in the horizontal plane, I actually had been going down, and that now it was time for me to rejoin the living. I turned around and he was gone. I took a step and found myself standing on a low dock at high tide, boats coming and going and the team of people I had arrived with were surprised to see me there, not knowing where I had gotten off to.

That was the end of the dream. Very strange huh? What about your dreams, do you have such vivid dreams?