Catching Dreams

  In the second unit of my humanities class, Who am I? , we explored out doubts and dreams. We learned about British Empiricists like Hume , Locke, and Berkeley and Continental rationalists like Spinoza and Descartes. We also went on field experiences to talk with professionals in their fields and learn more about their philosophies dreams, and doubts. We even go the chance to analyze not only our own dreams but that of someone we trust. As our final task we were asked to create a dream catcher with meaning and purpose and so that's what I did:

If you didn’t know already what is pictured above is a dreamcatcher. While it may not be the best looking dreamcatcher it is not fully defined by its looks. A dreamcatcher is not meant to be used as a “cute” decoration, neither is it meant to be made just for the fun. A dreamcatcher is to be made with purpose and meaning, all its parts playing into that meaning. Dream Catchers originate from the Ojibwe tribe, a native american tribe of which called the now Midwest part of the United States and parts of Canada, home. It was a tradition of which was meant to keep sleeping people safe and peaceful when they dream. Dreamcatchers were handed down from generation to generation and  grandparents made some for their grandchildren as a way sooth them and give them a feeling of safety when they journeyed into the world of dreams.

 When it comes to the process of making a dreamcatcher it in my mind it is very similar to the process of dreamwork as explained by well known neurologist, Sigmund Freud. According to Freud dream work involves 3 steps or parts, Condensation, the joining of two or more ideas, Displacement, our mind transforming a person or thing into something else, and Secondary elaboration, the sringing of images and content into a logical order that is believable and processable. You could say the coming together of string, hoop, feathers, beads, and other objects is considered the condensation part as all the parts have their own idea and meaning behind them and are being put together to create a dreamcatcher with a bigger meaning or a combined one. The objects and colors you use come in the displacement part of dreamwork. Behind each object there is meaning and can represent something other than what they look like. For example a feather may be used to represent divinity, a certain color can be used to represent death or life, etc. Finally secondary elaboration in making the dreamcatcher is the result of everything coming together to create what we understand and recognize as a dream catcher just like in dreamwork the result is a somewhat of a logically sequenced dream. While making my dreamcatcher I took note of all this and actually made sure every part had a significance. The colors of which I used all have meaning. The yellow inside the hoop is meant to signify life as yellow is often associated with the sun and without the sun there would be no life. Purple is meant to signify strength and victory so when these colors came together they were meant to represent the strength of life. Then the red wrapped around the hoop is supposed to represent negative aspects of life, such as hurt, death, and loss. To balance out the negative I used the color white to represent the positive aspects of life such as, life itself, healing, and love. Together they balance just like in real life. One of the greatest mysteries to me is that of human thought and its infinity, the idea that as long as we humans live we have no limit to the thoughts we might have; it's not limited to a certain amount and that amazes me. So at the center of my dreamcatcher I tied a white string in the shape of an infinity sign. Finally hanging from my dreamcatcher are three purple strings with meaningful objects tied to them. These 3 objects are meant to represent the past, present, and future as they are all essential to us as human beings. The broken watch tied to the first string is meant to represent the past as it is already set just like the watch is set at 6:45. The dolphin tied to the middle string is meant to represent the present. As dolphins live in the ocean and are always on the move, and the ocean is always different, it never has two of the same waves just like the present is never the same and is always moving every second, every minute, every moment. Finally to represent the future I used a die. As the future is unpredictable just like the roll of a die. All these things came together in the end to create the maybe not best looking but still meaningful dreamcatcher pictured above.

All these objects have meaning to them because of my experiences. So I would agree with John Locke and his idea that all of our knowledge comes from our experiences and we are all born “tabula rasa”, a blank slate. I believe this as I do agree that we are born almost completely clueless as to the world we just came to exist in and only learn through living in it. A philosopher I would disagree with though is Spinoza and his idea that everything is made of one substance which he called, god or nature. I disagree with this as I believe God is a completely different substance than what surrounds us. Instead I believe there are two types of substances, the worldly which is what our senses pick up and all the physical things and the divine, which is made of our thoughts, ideas, what would make up God, something our human senses are not fully able to comprehend its nature. In the end making a dream catcher was incredibly calming and really made me put purpose into the making of it. If there is one thing I learned while analyzing this world of dreams it is that dreams serve as an escape from our reality into one that is personalized just for us. I have enjoyed this process and hope whoever reads this dares to pay attention to their dreams.

Sources:

- Markie, Peter. “Rationalism vs. Empiricism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 6 July 2017, plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/.

- “The Ojibwe People.” Minnesota Historical Society, www.mnhs.org/fortsnelling/learn/native-americans/ojibwe-people.

- Rue, Nancy N. Sophies World. Zonderkidz, 2009.