Dream
I won a guest appearance on Man vs.Wild with Bear Grylls. The environment we are surviving is an airport,
specifically how to get out of an airport during a disaster. There is some
stuff about how to get through security, but the thing he is actually showing
me in the dream is how to put on a hazmat suit while running. First he takes
his suit out of the bag (you should never go anywhere without your packaged hazmat suit)
and puts the hood over his head. He is then securing the hood to his head with
the draw strings, so that the suit will stay on while leaving his arms
free. The way he ties the draw strings is very involved, since he is doing it
without ever releasing his grip on them. During this entire thing we are
running through a busy airport. Bear’s explanations are always deadly serious
and intense but everyone keeps looking at us like we’re crazy and I’m having a
hard time not breaking into laughter. I notice Nathan (a friend from high
school) in the crowd and I give him a shrug to show that I really don’t know
what to make of this situation. Bear is going on and on about how people might
be trying to get us and they could have biological weapons, and all I can do is
smile and nod. He says “I spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff” and I
think to myself “yeah, I can kind of tell.”
Analysis
I haven’t seen an episode of Man vs.
Wild in a long time, but I like the twist my dream put on the show. First,
having an unskilled guest on is nice because it limits the survival techniques
to things that normal people can actually do (free climbing a sheer cliff isn’t
something the average lost hiker is willing to attempt). I also like the idea
of surviving in urban situations. To get lost in the jungle you usually have to
deliberately go to the jungle, but you never know when you might be in the
middle of an urban disaster. The main problem with this, which is shown pretty
well in the dream, is that it's hard to actually create the disaster so that
you can survive it. We just went to an actual operating airport and pretended
like a disaster was happening and this ended up looking farcical.
The dream also shows the problem I
have with being serious. I like to maintain a carefree attitude and rarely get
work up over anything. A complete sincerity demeanor always appears absurd
to me and if I ever behave this way you can be confident that I’m doing it
facetiously. It’s more fun to see the humor in everything.
Auguries
I need to start carrying a hazmat suit.
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