| dream a little dream of disaster 09.19.02 |
| I've had some really vivid dreams here in Brazil. Oddly enough, many of them go back to my high school days, and there have been at least three dreams relating to Footworks. I also see a lot of friends from the SF and Sac churches...it's almost like my dreams know how far I am from home and how nice it would be to see these people, so they are presented in my dreams. Anyway, this past weekend, I heard about one of the Brazilian airlines, Tam, which has had a couple of crashes lately. No deaths, but still crashes, one even in a field of vultures. When I looked up flights to Salvador, I saw that the cheapest one was via Tam, and the next cheapest of another airline was $70 more! I am not really bothered by Tam's history because I figure each crash just makes them more cautious of the future...but then again, maybe that's what all the other customers thought too. So when I finally drifted off into dreamland last night, this is what I saw... I was in an airplane but could see the ground and the sky clearly before me, as if I were riding a roller coaster. I was even strapped in like I was riding one. The airplane took a nosedive and I was suddenly parallel to the ground, facing the earth below. People around me were freaking out but I was enjoying it, as I would be enjoying a roller coaster. Soon after, the plane leveled out but was still dropping quickly...then it went back into the nosedive. The plane continued to do this a few times. Since I could see everything outside, I saw that we got really close to other airplanes and I was afraid that we would hit them. Inside though, I was totally at peace. I was thinking, "I am going to die and it's okay. I'm about to die." I kept repeating that. Maybe I knew it was a dream. I don't know. We get closer to an airport as we get lower and lower. It looks like SFO where the runway meets the water. I think maybe we'll even land on the runway, but another airplane does that first, and we are like a half mile off from the runway. I realize we're going to land in the water, so all these thoughts of the plane filling up with water and having to fight and swim toward the doors makes me nervous. If I could choose one way NOT to die, it would be by drowning. I picture those oxygen masks dropping, or sliding down those big inflatable things that you see in the safety pamphlets. Oddly enough, the plane lands on the water and floats! People are still freaking out though, and are putting on the flotation vests that are attached under your seat. Despite many flights before, I still forgot where they were and had to copy other people. I lifted up the bottom of my seat, like one of those seats in the theaters, and although it was dark in the plane, I felt around and detached the vest. The plane had one of those emergency exits that school buses have in the ceiling where you push them up and out, so the flight attendants were opening those. Strange dream, eh? |
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