Another Hoop Dream

Another basketball playing dream ..... a dream with the sense that it was the end of something. My last game possibly that just happened to take place (the dream) in my old grade school gym, which was my first gym. And afterwards everyone suddenly departed and I was standing there alone.

A loneliness that I've never felt before.  

And then suddenly, as I stood at the gyms entrance wondering where everyone had gone, an old teammate from my younger days was there and we exchanged a few benign greetings and words before he walked away. We were never particularly close or friendly back then, in real life, nearly fifty years ago. The time spent in each other's world was brief, measured in a period of less than six months and we never really shared or experienced a "connection" so the reason for his sudden cameo appearance in the dream is very unclear.

I don't recall in real life that I had any sense as I walked away, that it was my final time running up and down the court. I always thought there would be another game tomorrow ..... or next week.

And there was the next to last shot .... an incredibly simple one where the ball was bouncing alone near the basket, the defenders all seemingly frozen in place, allowing my swooping in, scooping up the loose ball and then where I jumped early and possibly off the wrong foot and left the attempt awkwardly well short of the hoop .... and a sense that I had been having issues with that exact same motion and shot in previous days. 

..... and in real life that is one thing I never had problems with ..... making my share of attempted shots or the physical coordination involved in taking them. 

But mostly it was the loneliness felt at the end that made the dream unpleasant and a relief to wake-up from. Like feeling alone in the world. 

Afterwards, stayed up until 3:30am, wary of going back to sleep. That loneliness felt in the dream, weighing on me. When I finally crashed, a different, work-related horror dream materialized. I was on a lift truck and had brought a four-high stack of 41-inch totes of frozen veggies out of the freezer. A physical impossibility as a three-high stack will barely fit through the freezer door. And besides, in real life, I wouldn't dare move a four-high more than a few feet. Anyway, dreams rarely explain how or why but there I was, placing the four-high in the spot for it to be staged and consumed ...... but as I set it down, it wavered and fell over. One of my greatest fears in the days when I used to drive lift trucks. 

Again, a great relief to wake up and realize I was safe at home. 

But it wasn't a good night for sleeping.