Theories
Facts
Interpretation

Journey to the Land of Dreams

Helena was traveling in a horse-drawn carriage to the land where dreams are dreamed.  Her puppy, Pepa Lumpen, was sitting by her die in the coachman's seat.  Under her arm, Pepa carried a hen that was going to work in her dream.  Helena had brought along an enormous chest full of masks and multicolored rags. 

The road was crawling with people.  They were all on their way to the land of dreams, and were causing such a scandal and making such a racket as they rehearsed their dreams that Pepa did nothing but grumble, because she couldn't concentrate properly.

Galeano, Eduardo. The Book of Embraces. Trans. Cedric Belfrage. New York: Norton, 1991. 45

Tom's Interpretation

          This passage Galeano wrote is not a dream, but an instruction on how to dream.  Pepa Lumpen represents those who are able to let go of everything in the name of imagination.  Sometimes those who hang on to all they have leave no room for imagination, and therefore cannot dream.  America has a hard time of letting go and that is why we need to have people make dreams for us in the shape of movies, videogames, and  virtual reality.  We have built our modern institutions in such a way that it has left us with worries and responsibilities.  Many look at these things as positive, but I have a new approach.  Why don't we let all of these things go and work on recognizing our human spirit.  The only thing that makes us human.  In doing this we will have to let go of our ego, but with all of these modern edifices, it is nearly impossible.  We have built walls, our entire country are walls.  Imaginations do not survive within walls.  It is exactly the imagination that is free, walls stop the imagination from fully functioning.  We must all come together, use our imagination and tear down these walls which keep us apart.  It is imagination which keeps us together, it is walls that keep us apart.

          The people on the way to dreams kept Pepa from concentrating.  It is these people in America who are so full of themselves, they do not even know they exist as humans.  They are blind to the spirit which unifies us.  They have egos which are tainting the collective unconsciousness of all that makes us human.  They are the same as the walls they built.  Pepa couldn't concentrate because of these people and neither can I.  These egos are making me pay an expensive psychic price and robbing me of the imagination I strive for everyday.  I dream; I do not need virtual reality to escape from this modern world.  In letting everything else go, I have gained my imagination.  Like Pepa I am traveling to the land where dreams are dreamed in a horse-drawn, passing egos on the way, knowing I will be there soon, as I let them go as well.

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