I dream’d a dream to-night

And so did I.

Well what was yours?

That dreamers often lie

Have you ever walked down the street and felt that you were on a film set? You get the sense that all the buildings are just fronts and all the people are just extras. You, as a matter of fact, are an extra. No one is who they appear to be and nothing around you is real. Where’s the leading lady? Where’s the hero? Where’s the villain? Where’s our climax? Where’s our resolution?

The joke is…

They don’t exist! The villain is volunteering at the soup kitchen. The hero is passed out drunk on a piss-stained mattress. The leading lady is nowhere to be found. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a hint of exposition. We’ll get conflict. How many of us have our turning points, though? Who really gets a final resolution… a happily ever after?

So what do we make of this? We make what we can, I suppose. Whether we commandeer the plot and become the star, or set up house behind a fake building, blending into the scenery, or walk off the present set in hopes of finding a better one, we make what we can.

Where am I going with this?

Nowhere, probably.

Did you ever find a picture of someone you didn’t know and make up a whole imaginary life for them, based on that photograph alone? Names and birthdays, childhood ambitions, the event that lead to the taking of the photograph. Or people-watch in a public place, piecing together bits of conversation to invent a situation for someone? Some private drama or celebration.

And did you ever wonder if someone was doing the exact same thing with your photograph, your conversation, your life. Is it possible for someone to dream up a situation and have it become a reality? You’d never know. The dreamer is just a stranger on a park bench of whom you take no notice.

Imagine that! A complete stranger having an impact on your life by simply thinking!