That weird dream

Isn’t that dream weird. You know the one when you think you are falling from somewhere and you start to panic and you thrash your arms out to save yourself and they suddenly hit the mattress and you jump up, your eyes open and you realise…wow it was only a dream.

And then you go back to sleep again.

Don't you think that’s a bit weird too.

Well okay, perhaps it’s not all that weird, after all if you were in a deep sleep you’d probably like to go back, but it’s the whole trauma thing I’m talking about.

Let’s take the whole dreaming, sleeping thing out for a second and think about this.

Imagine you actually were falling.

No really, really falling from some tall skyscraper or cliff or something that is, well, umm…very tall.

You might have done a bit of screaming at the start and the decided there was nothing else for it and just closed your eyes and waited. (Or you might have just decided to scream and scream and well, scream.)

And then, in a freak flash of nature (work with me here folks this is a very unlikely scenario I’m trying to paint) some kinda very strong, but still warm and friendly continental wind swirls up the street and catches you at the last minute and you fall to the ground with no more than a gentle bump. (The whole Superman thing would have been just too unbelievable!)

Perhaps I’m wrong about this, but I reckon that while you’d be feeling very lucky, you might also be pretty traumatised by this whole series of events and - unless you were on the receiving end of some heavy sedatives - the last thing you’d want to do is sleep.

Anyway I mention that falling dream because well, it happened to me.

Not the dream, well okay the dream too, but far worse than that - the actual wide-awake falling thingy.

Umm, well falling might be a bit of an exaggeration.

It was more like stepping.

You see I don’t really like ladders, nasty dangerous things, and I’m not really sure why.

People have suggested that it is because I am afraid of heights, but I’m not really sure if that is the case.

I mean I’ve been up in high buildings before and it didn’t bother me looking out the window or going out on a balcony and stuff.

But then you didn’t quite get the sensation that the building might topple over at any moment if there was a gust of wind or if you moved to your right or to your left.

Ladders on the other hand, while I’m certain have been quite useful inventions, are hardly the most stable of working environments.

When I was younger and stoopider or maybe braver, I did go on ladders sometimes – but as I think back on it, probably not without trepidation.

However in recent times, I think the furthest I’ve got is to actually put the ladder once against the wall of the house, get as far as the bottom rung and then step off picturing the whole falling back to earth thing with a bang.

It is perhaps that which has caused me to occasionally have that falling dream, but there are others that are harder to explain.

Like for instance the one where I sit down at a computer and type up all the nonsense in my head…and people still read it...