I awoke from a nostalgic dream this morning. At the same time, a couple of lines from an old George Harrison song repeated in my head:
“…None of life’s strings can last
So, I must be on my way
And face another day.”
It wasn’t until I climbed out of bed that I remembered the words are from “All Things Must Pass”. Then the song’s refrain played continuously in my head:
“…All things must pass
All things must pass away”
The inner music almost obliterated the memory of the dream that I was trying to interpret, so focusing extra hard on the dream was necessary.
As in most dreams, the scenario had little to do with any actual past event. The dream was nostalgic because it included the apartment I shared with an ex-lover in another city, the ex-lover himself, and a conversation similar to those we routinely had.
What was jarring, yet not unusual for dreams, is that the place outside of the apartment was the yard to the house I currently reside. What may or may not be a visual metaphor was that large yellow bulldozers were felling the many trees in the yard.
It was when one of the bulldozers pushed over the biggest tree in the front yard, that I yelled to my ex that the landlord is finally getting rid of the trees. After that, the George Harrison lyrics started up and awakened me.
In spite of my best efforts, nostalgia pulls its gauze over my mind at the end of each year. This seems to be true for many of us because New Year’s Eve, as a cultural phenomenon, is the most sentimental time of the year.
Like it or not, the news media broadcasts retrospective news stories about the major events that took place earlier in the year. The news features recap scientific discoveries, the most popular movies, popular music, and fads. Then they remind us of the celebrities who died. These stories help to set the tone of the holiday.
For many of us, our personal retrospectives only begin with the current year. The floodgates are opened for memories about the good ol’ days and the not so good ol’ days. Oftentimes, this is automatic, as in the case of the dream about the trees being bulldozed. That dream was dripping with nostalgia.
Naturally, all of this obsessive pondering over New Year’s Eve triggers the mind to think about the future and what it might bring. There is the big hoopla surrounding calendar pages and clocks counting down to midnight.
At the same time, the mind may visualize the Earth spiraling through the Milky Way Galaxy kept in check by the Sun. A process that will go on and on until our star goes supernova.
This tells us that there is nothing that is actually permanent. Knowing that our planet’s demise is billions of years away, is almost as good as eternity.
However this year is passing, just as years have done in the past and as they will do again in the future. “All things must pass, All things must pass away.”
Ciao
The Blue Jay of Happiness likes a verse from another George Harrison song:
“We were talking about the space between us all and the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion. Never glimpse the truth–then it’s far too late when they pass away.”
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