Helipads, Avalanches, and Floods

I just woke up from a terrible dream.

I was with my friends at the airport and we were all trying to catch our flights to Europe. For some reason, my flight was separate, and left about an hour before theirs did. We checked our lugguge and went through this un-orthodox queue system that was supposedly security, however, I left something outside and therefore had to run back to get it and go through again. Somehow, I realized I was going to be late so I started to run, but low and behold, when I looked up at the screen, my flight had already departed without me. I was devastated. In the dream, I was supposed to meet someone there so I was going to have to pay another $1000 (at the least) to get a new ticket.

Then, after my friends caught their flight and left, I went to go home (I guess there weren't any more flights to the Netherlands that day). I was looking up at this "airport" we were at and saw that it was not like a traditional airport. There was a ginormous mountain behind it and no flat land whatsoever. I saw helicopters taking off from the side of the mountain so I guess it was more of a Helipad than an airport. So apparently, I was going to take a helicopter to the Netherlands... awesome. Anyways, as I was looking up at the mountain, I heard a huge rumbling noise and realized that a huge avalanche of rocks was tumbling down the mountain. When that one stopped, a few seconds later another one started, and this continued until 5 huge avalanches had occurred and the mountain was pretty much non-existent. Then, randomly, water started pouring out of the side of the mountain (yes, I know, my dreams are very scientific and realistic). Well the water started rushing towards me so I had to swim to a safe ledge about 100 meters away. Not so bad if I wasn't carrying my camera! My new camera that I had just fixed got soaked and stopped functioning so not only did I have to drop $1000 for my new ticket, I also would have to replace a $400 camera. Whoa-is-me!

I'm really not into dream analysis. It seems a bit Freudian to me and I tend to avoid that school of thought like the plague. However, perhaps I could tackle this one. Perhaps its a metaphor for my life. When it rains it pours, right? Missing the plane is equal to some big terrible event in my real life and the avalanches equal the rest of my life crumbling to an almost un-identifiable pile of rubble (wow, I am good at this! or overly dramatic, one of the two!). But maybe, when I step back and look at it objectively, I am supposed to realize that if this is as bad as it gets, that is, if this is my "terrible" life, being about $1400 in the hole, then maybe I should stop wining, pay the money, and keep on living it.

Sometimes I do get dramatic about my life unnecessarily, I can admit it. And outsiders might get annoyed, thinking that I should stop complaining, especially if they think their problems are objectively worse. And that is fine, sometimes they are probably right. But the thing is, everyone has problems, and trying to compare problems to others' is usually a fruitless endevour. There will always be someone who is worse off, and someone who is better off, but this doesn't really change the reality at hand. Besides perhaps putting your problems in perspective a bit, this knowledge doesn't really change how ones problems affect them.

I say this because I often hear people blaming themselves for not being able to get over certain negative things that happen in their life. They often berade themselves, saying, "I know my life isn't that bad! Other people have it so much worse! Why can't I just get over this?!" But this thinking does not seem to be helpful. Regardless of what the events are, everyone has their own events that seem like avalanches, and blaming yourself for being devastated by these events is usually counter-productive.

On that note, I think I will wrap up this comprehensive and entirely too intellectual dream analysis. The cool thing is, there really isn't any way to prove what the "right" analysis is, and therefore, I can claim to be correct. The important thing it what the dream means to me anyways. And in addition to helping me see my situation objectively, it made me excited to be awake for once!

Now I'm off to enjoy my Friday of a little work, tailgating in this wonderful weather, and the Phillies game! Lets just hope I can avoid the avalanches and floods for a while... maybe then I will stop all this wining... ;)