Rein on All Fronts
By Charles Rein
I violently awoke from a nightmare, nearly dripping with sweat. I had witnessed the "End of the World" and to disagree with the lyrics of the 1987 music group R.E.M.'s song, "I didn't feel fine."
You'll find my night terror below. In addition you’ll find a professor's similar type dream which in my view, ends much more uplifting than mine and shows humanity's goodwill towards one another.
My morning's bad dream began as dreams do, a bit fuzzy as I found myself outdoors and laying besides a garden (looking upwards). In this dream, I become aware of musical chanting (not exactly this) though similar to Dies Irea, "Day of Wrath."
The first few lines of this tradional Roman Catholic Requiem chant translated read:
Dies Irea Dies Illa
The Day of Wrath, that day
Solvet Saeclum In Favilla
Will dissolve the world into ashes... QuantusTremor Est Futurus
How great will be the quaking
To listen on YouTube, type in:
Chant of the Mystics-
Dies Irea, thunder version.
Back to my nightmare, I dreamed there was a rumbling (thunder/or lightning) or the roar of a trumpet sound. Next the sky instantly changed colors and one spot projected like a multi- billion watt projecter image onto the sky. .The image appeared of a stationary military fighter in the sky. It stood still without moving. Next a satellite in my dream appeared which was struck by a missile. The satellite was marked with what appeared to be a painted symbol of a large green crescent.
As I saw the satellite explode, it felt like an end of the world type nightmare. Never one in the past, to be fixated on Apocalypic Biblical prophecy, my first thought in my dream was, "We've done it. It's coming true."
Upon awakening, I sat up in bed, sweating. As my breath returned to normal, I became aware it was just a dream and I hadn't woken up dead; reached for my cell. I googled terms: chanting, satellite and end of the world dreams and came across this below on LinkedIn. It was incredibly well written by (former) 30-year mathematics Professor Rafael Espericueta.
This Mathematics Emeritus (Bakersfield College) Professor Espericueta kindly gave me authorization to reprint it here. I've included three of his four paragraphs:
Some months back I had a very strange dream, a doomsday dream. Everyone had just become aware that a planet killing asteroid was heading our way, and it was far too big for anyone to stand a chance of surviving. It was due to hit at about 3pm the following day.
Sounds like a nightmare, right?! But it wasn't. The tone of the dream was one of profound gratitude. I remember being amazed at how kind people were being to each other. Everyone's schemes and plans and what not were dropped, suddenly completely and utterly irrelevant. What was left was a deep compassion and love towards all. How precious life is, in the here and now, and this doomsday realization seemed to awaken this awareness in everyone.
...Many are alive today who won't be tomorrow, and don't know of their impending demise. Perhaps we should all live as though this were our last day, and appreciate it fully with compassion and profound gratitude. If not now, when?
"The End of the World"
Professor Espericueta's full article:
Finally I discovered in an Armdeep.co blog written by "Amar" who gave his suggestion:
"It is easy to love your friend, but sometimes the hardest lesson to learn is to love your enemy."
He goes to say, "If we only show empathy to people who think like us we aren’t showing empathy at all. Instead of simply demonizing others, humanize them."
Amardeep.co blog titled, 10 quotes from the art of war that will transform your life
As I end here, I'll remind us that it's been said by various people, "Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it."
We all have the choice to how we'll respond to war or tragedies or even to our dreams. As a young children I used to be haunted by nightmares. Once my father taught me, when finding yourself in a night terror, we can learn (like with a tv) how to "change the channel." Let us remember we all have this personal power in our lives as well, no matter what comes.