Go Insane Gracefully

About 5 this morning I woke up. No alarm - are you kidding? - sounded. My dream woke me. Usually you hear of nightmares scaring you awake. But this was different. The dream was equally emotional, and that intensity of feeling awakened me. For an hour afterwards I couldn't fall back asleep, unable to shake the strong memory of the dream.

While I lay awake, I prayed. Processing middle of the night irrationality with God is something I have done before. I don't know why God lets me go through insomnia, withholding the sweet forgetfulness and peace of sleep. Prayers when you can't think straight and you're breathing hard to separate uncontrolled imagination with reality are interesting things. They go in different directions than the considered prayers of the morning and daytime.

One thought was why I dream. During the day I can have an active imagination, read all sorts of books without pictures. Why though do dreams take that imagination and do with it what I would never allow - all when the inhibitor chip of my rational, responsible brain is snoozing? For some reason I compared my mid-night state with dementia or Alzheimer's. Those people lose their rationality and their memory. But deep down, they are the same people. I thought of two things that could prepare you to go crazy gracefully (don't judge me for thinking about these things; I say, it was the middle of the night!): 1. Learn to cope with fear. I cannot fathom the fear I would experience if I found out I had dementia or Alzheimer's - or if I woke up in a place I didn't recognize surrounded by people whom I didn't remember. A lot would depend on my trained reaction to such bewilderment. 2. Build truth and kindness into my character now. I don't believe character will change (apart from drug-induced alterations, which I hope to avoid).

Kindness, and a calm response to fearful situations and confusion, are thus some focuses of my life for the next few decades.

To God be all glory.