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Chasing The American Dream

January 28, 2005

JUMP

A Visual.

Turn the clock back to the Wild West days. Picture a stagecoach and drawn horses merrily sauntering across the desert plains. The sun is setting in the burnt Orange sky. I’m wearing Cowboy garb, complete with boots, spurs, chaps, ten-gallon hat, etc. You have on one of those frilly white dresses flowing in the wind with your little white bonnet. Got the picture?

In the background we hear a whistle. Apparently, the 5:15 train is approaching. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a posse of desperados jumps the coach and holds us up at gunpoint. You know, like Jesse James or Billy the Kid. We’re good and screwed. Billy and Jesse want all of our money and jewels and their lookin’ pretty sideways toward you. They ask me for my gun, and I ain’t got much choice other than to hand it over. My mind’s thinking, trying to work out a plan to save us. You, being the brave and courageous damsel that you are, are not panicking and are not screaming. You’re kind of looking at me trying to figure out what I’m thinking in terms of escape.

The whistle is really loud now, ear-piercing as the long, long seemingly endless train whisks by. Just for a moment, the bandits are distracted by the train. And then we hear this WHHOOOOSH. We look over and there’s an arrow pierced right in the heart of one of the bad guys. And then we hear the rustle and war cries of the Seminole Indians as they come roaring across the plains on their horses.

Chaos ensues. The bandits turn their attention to the Injuns. Realizing this might be our only chance, I look at you and you look at me. We make a break for it. I grab your hand and we make a jump off the coach and head straight for the train. It’s kind of a bizarre looking train because the cars have these little red and pink hearts on them. But we can’t waste time thinking about that. We gotta focus.

We’re running hand in hand in an effort to catch the last car to complete this incredible escape. Your daily running work-outs are paying off because you’re able to keep up. The boxcars are flying past us, but if we time it right, we can catch the last car before it goes by…

We’re side-by-side now with the train. The chaos between the Injuns’ and the bad guys is long behind us. I make the giant leap towards the car and…WHEW!…I make it on board (it’s sort of like they say on an airplane when they say parents put on your oxygen masks on first and then take care of the kids after you have your masks on…so no, ladies and gentlemen, male chivalry isn’t dead) and do a nice 360 head-over-heels flip. Ouch.

So I’m on board this heart-spackled love train or whatever it is, and I desperately reach out my hand for yours. Your hand is right there and I go to grab it. You stumble a bit and I only get a few fingers as the train begins to pull away. You lost concentration for that split second because your internal courage left you for that moment because your mind was playing tricks on you. The right brain said, you can’t make it to that speeding train, you’ll hurt yourself for sure. Play it safe and stay here where you know for sure you’ll live. But your left brain said, c’mon girl you can do it! It’s right there a few feet in front of you…go for it!. You’re hand is now too far away to grab, but if you jump, I can catch you. I yell out to you, over the roar of the train, “JUMP, ALICE!!!JUUMMMP!!!”

BANG!!! I heard a noise. What the hell was that? It was a huge clap of thunder just outside my bedroom window. I wake up in a cold sweat. Jeez, what a dream! Damn, I don’t know what the hell happens in the end. All I know is that I am on board this train of hearts by myself, and I desperately want you to catch up to me, grab my hand, and make the jump into the unknown.

Thinking I must have taken too much Lexapro, or I’m just wackin’ out totally, I make an appointment with my doctor only you walk through the door. I do a double take as I flashback to this dream of mine. I’m somewhat confused, in a fog, and at a loss for words. Damn that Lexapro! My mind is spinning; it’s hard to focus and form any words. The only thing I can think to utter is…."So Alice, how did the dream end…….????????"

5 Comments:

  • OK, so I'm warped. This "visual" didn't do for me what you'd probably have intended. What I got from this was a cross between John Ford's "Stagecoach", The Coen Brothers' opening scene of "O Brother Where Art Thou," and an old, Buster Keaton film (I don't remember the title now) where he's doing all kinds of shenanigans on the front "plow" of the locomotive.

    Hey man, at least you invoke unique images in some people's heads.

    By Blogger (S)wine, at 10:05 AM, January 28, 2005  

  • It gives me weird dreams too. I dreamed the other night that I was my cat and I got outside...couldn't climb a tree because of no claws...I think it ended with me trying to find a litterbox.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:09 AM, January 28, 2005  

  • Ah, that's easy to analyze. You subconsciously think you are not adequate enough at doing a task or something similar (job related?), and then you had to pee.

    Please make the check out to: LX Robotnik.

    By Blogger (S)wine, at 11:35 AM, January 28, 2005  

  • Except for the pee part, I have a different interpretation, LX. You need to catch up on the blog and you'll probably conclude that it is NOT job related...

    By Blogger Plantation, at 8:13 PM, January 28, 2005  

  • I can barely keep up with other blogs, much less READERS of those blogs.

    My "interpretation" was tongue in cheek.

    By Blogger (S)wine, at 7:27 AM, January 29, 2005  

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