Off-Course

Thursday night

My brother Andrew and I had been invited to a party and were ready to head over when I said, "Why don't we fly?" I began to levitate from my standing-still position, and said, "Have you ever known anyone else who could do this?" He hadn't, and he couldn't do it, either. I told him to hang on, and he'd be all right. Soon we were aloft. I was lying prone, facing into the wind, a la Superman, but had my arms out at my sides, with finger tips outstretched in best hawk-like fashion, with Drew in tow. Unfortunately, a few minutes into the flight I got cocky, and wondered how well I'd be able to steer with my eyes shut. We promptly slammed into the crown of a tree. I apologized to Drew and we took off again. After a few minutes I grew tired, and in spite of my best efforts to stay awake, I fell asleep. Shortly thereafter, we hit another tree. At that point, Drew said, "I'd just as soon drive."

*****

Another fun dream about flying, except for the crashes, following "The Eye in the Sky" (11/13/07), "Flying" (7/10/07) and another one from June 2007, mentioned in the notes at the end of "Flying." All of these dreams seem so real and natural; there's no fear whatsoever. Then again, birds aren't afraid to fly, are they?

My wife and I recently finished watching the marvelous BBC documentary series "Planet Earth." A brief making-of piece is tacked on at the end of each episode, and one such featurette told the story of a Frenchman who had rigged a chair to a hot air balloon which he steered with a handle attached to a metal rudder. The chair was just wide enough for the "pilot" to squeeze in next to the photographer, a tall, very droll Brit, who, as it happened, was afraid of heights. After securing assurances from the Frenchman that he could control the balloon, the two of them took off, and promptly flew straight into a tree. Both of us just about bust a gut laughing, particularly when the Frenchman was back on solid ground, saying, "I'm so stoopeed!" over and over. After getting someone to solder the exhaust system back together and after cutting part of the (unbroken) section of the rudder, in order to even it out, the pair finally took off again, only to find out immediately that they had less control than they had before. The segment ended with the two of them hitting another tree. It seems pretty obvious to me that that's why we flew into trees twice in this dream.

The bit about Andrew clinging to me seems to be lifted from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," when the Ghost of Christmas Present bade Scrooge to touch his robe in order to be transported.

Incidentally, this is the first time that I can remember dreaming that I was asleep.