Dreaming Liberation

Jail dreams. Jacob’s dream. My dreams.

The folks I visit with often share their dreams with me. “What does it mean,” they ask. If only I could interpret. Instead, I hold space, bearing witness to the unconscious made conscious. I answer their question with a question, “What does it mean for you?”  

I think about my own dreams. What’s in the shadow of my unconscious mind? The stories, the fears. The fantasies. Who am I, who do I become when I’m fast asleep?

What if the conditions were different for Jacob as he dreamt? What would he dream then? Would the story offer us a different teaching? With inspiration from Yehoshua November’s poem Climbing (cited below) from his book G-d’s Optimism, I offer a poem in response:

A Prayer for Liberation

Today,

In the dark and damp solitary confinement module: The Hole

I witness them in their cells

Freezing cold concrete and stainless steel

About the size of a parking space

Toilet and sink in arm’s reach from the bed

Some sit on the floor, others sleep under their suicide-watch-approved blanket

G-d’s down in The Hole, too; She’s been here the entire time

Many have tried to pray their way out: screaming, begging, pleading

And yet…

They remain right here, still

Breathing in

Breathing out

Praying for liberation

Is it possible to be present in this moment?

Climbing

By Yehoshua November

From the book G-d's Optimism

This morning, in the small basement shul,

amidst several Chasidic students lost in prayer, I looked up from my siddur

to see a man in worker’s clothes climb a ladder

and enter through an open ceiling panel.

And I thought, Oh yes,

he is just another one

like all of us

trying desperately to ascend,

but knowing full well he must come back down

to perform the work of this earth.