Back in the day when I was a working stiff, most of the jobs I held involved the act of researching. When I was a child abuse investigator, my task was to ascertain whether or not certain actions or events took place. As a mitigation investigator, it was my job to trace the life histories of defendants accused of capital crimes. Even my work in the peace movement and alternate political parties involved researching issues up one side and down the other. My three college degrees -- Sociology, Journalism and Social Science (political philosophy emphasis) -- stress research skills.
So, performing research is something that I have knack for. I still do it all the time. I'll read a news article about some topic and this will push me to try to come to understand the topic better. I'll come across a word or phrase I'm not familiar with and this tends to launch me toward researching that word or phrase.
I mention this as a backdrop for the past 12 hours or so. Before she headed off to bed last night, my wife and I watched a TV program together. We were fascinated by one of the personalities involved. After she went to bed, night owl me went upstairs to do a little research on the individual in question...or did I?
Upon awakening this morning, I was eager to share the results of my research with my wife. I had found out all sorts of interesting details and trivia. The information was very vivid in my mind, but some little voice nagged at me. Did I actually perform this research OR did I dream that I did it?
I fired up my computer to verify what my mind was telling me. It turns out that I really did NOT perform the research last night...it was all a dream. Almost all of the specific "facts" I had planned to share with my wife were not based in the reality of the situation; they were of my own making!
What IS reality? What ARE dreams? Might they be interchangeable? Could it be that everything we know and hold dear is nothing more than our own delusion? Could life itself be one grand illusion?
Hell if I know!!
So, performing research is something that I have knack for. I still do it all the time. I'll read a news article about some topic and this will push me to try to come to understand the topic better. I'll come across a word or phrase I'm not familiar with and this tends to launch me toward researching that word or phrase.
I mention this as a backdrop for the past 12 hours or so. Before she headed off to bed last night, my wife and I watched a TV program together. We were fascinated by one of the personalities involved. After she went to bed, night owl me went upstairs to do a little research on the individual in question...or did I?
Upon awakening this morning, I was eager to share the results of my research with my wife. I had found out all sorts of interesting details and trivia. The information was very vivid in my mind, but some little voice nagged at me. Did I actually perform this research OR did I dream that I did it?
I fired up my computer to verify what my mind was telling me. It turns out that I really did NOT perform the research last night...it was all a dream. Almost all of the specific "facts" I had planned to share with my wife were not based in the reality of the situation; they were of my own making!
What IS reality? What ARE dreams? Might they be interchangeable? Could it be that everything we know and hold dear is nothing more than our own delusion? Could life itself be one grand illusion?
Hell if I know!!
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