What Dreams Mean

The other night I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that Will and I were hanging out with some ladies who were cooking up a storm in a kitchen (perhaps it was a special dinner or something) when all of the sudden they started joking about cooking Will (remember I said it was weird). I laughed, because, hey it was a joke and I like jokes. But then they put my naked baby in a big pot and started BASTING him! I said "What the h!@$ are you doing?" and as I grabbed my son from their pot they proceeded to laugh at me, not in a scary Hanzel and Gretel sort of way, but more like a teasing mother-hen sort of way. Then they said, "Mothers these days! How times have changed." Marisa and I had a good laugh when I told her about this weird dream. It got us thinking and talking about dreams and their mysterious nature. Isn't it interesting how we can have the strangest dreams and somehow not want to tell others about them? As I recounted the dream to Marisa there was this feeling inside of me almost like embarrassment. What is it about this sub/unconscious state that makes feel this way? We clearly have no control over the substance of our dreams and yet, we feel like others will judge them as if these are really thoughts we have. I'm sure there is a wealth of information out there on the "science" of dreams and it would be really interesting to sit down with someone who has systematically researched all of the this, but I would be more interested in picking up one of those non-scientific books at Borders to "translate" the meaning of my dreams for me. Am I afraid that well-meaning ladies want to eat my baby? Was it a super dramatic representation of "issues" of modern parenting that parents of a generation ago see as overreacting (ex. giving your baby ONLY pureed Gerber baby food, constantly keeping your baby strapped into their carseats even if your feet from home, overfeeding/underfeeding, overbathing/underbathing- you get the picture). Laura once told me that Geoffrey never dreams and it made me think about how Rodney rarely tells me about his dreams either. Marisa offered that Kyle is the same and said she heard or read somewhere that men are less likely to remember their dreams. I wondered if they are less likely to recount their dreams because of the vulnerable state that comes with telling others our crazy dreams (and the judgement thing I mentioned above). Maybe women can handle this vulnerable feeling more than men? Hmm. I'd love to hear about your wackiest dreams- judgement free. Sometimes we just need a good laugh.