Dreamland

Luge, Art, and Plants

I’m standing at the top of a hill, watching a street luge race. Someone asks if I want to try it, offers me one of the modified skateboards. I grab the board and position myself at the starting line. The race starts, I’m off like a shot, It’s totally exhilarating! I’m not as good as the experienced racers, I know I won’t win the race, but that’s o.k. I’m just getting into the experience, enjoying flying down the hill while trying to maintain control.

I see a crowd of people just past the finish line as I approach the bottom of the hill. I drag the heels of my shoes onto the pavement and slow to a stop just short of the crowd. I see that they are having a charity art sale, and my sister is there, selling some of her watercolors. I stop and help for a while, sell a couple paintings for her while she takes a break to walk around and look at the other artist’s work.

After a while I climb back up the hill. I stop to visit a friend I haven’t seen in a while. (In real life this person disappeared, I suspect he is now homeless, institutionalized, or dead.) He has just moved in to this old wood-framed house. He has taken down some of the interior walls, but left the framing. The wooden beams are wet, and plants are growing out of them. The plants are quite beautiful. He is standing there pouring water from a watering can onto a large beam covered with moss and ivy. I tell him it is probably not a good idea, wetting the beams will cause them to rot, weakening the structure of the house. He laughs, says it doesn’t matter.