I have sometimes fancied
that it will one day be our restored preternatural power (either in Heaven or
after our Resurrection) to have total recall of our past, whether to relive the
best moments of our life and have them grow sweeter in the process, or to
recall our worst moments and repent and redeem and heal them with forgiveness.
And I’ve further fancied
that this total recall would cover not only our waking moments, but our dreams,
and we’ll finally know clearly what they meant and whether or not they were
simply the brain clearing out mental garbage. I have further farther imagined
that we will somehow have the power to finally share these dreams fully, and
not just as a clutched handful of fading, withered images. Perhaps my most
tenuous hope is that others will finally see what I mean and might actually be
interested in them.
I have attached these
thoughts to Tolkien’s theory of Subcreation, which found the most full-bodied example
in Leaf by Niggle, where the imaginative production by an artist is
given reality and things half-guessed are at last fully expressed and perfected
in the afterlife, thus adding in their small way to the creation of the Prime Creator.
There are people in my dreams I would like to meet, and dreamscapes I would
like to wander and explore. And as for my waking creations...! Korm and Roth
already seem real and separate from me, and I would love to explore the streets
of Morg City. And Bob Bellamy might be able to teach me a thing or two.
Of course, the flipside
might also apply if I go to a not-quite-so desirable afterlife. Complete memory
might be an added pain and affliction as I relive all my poor decisions and
missed chances. I can remember some nightmares that might well add to the pains
of Hell. But then Hope is one of those virtues that I try to hang onto. And I
reflect that if my strange whims and fancies about Heaven are not true, then
something better will be.
As King Arthur in Excalibur might say, “It
is a dream I have.”
No comments:
Post a Comment