Last week, I dreamt that I won a car. I was initially thrilled, and then felt enormous guilt that the car should have gone to someone else who really needed it. I know in part why these emotions have infiltrated my unconscious – one of our kids needs a car and I have some anxiety about tariffs, safety, and helping her choose the right one. Usually my dreams are murkier, and less clearly memorable about exactly what’s happening, so it stuck with me.
But this particular dream also immediately made me think of Roz Chast, the New Yorker cartoonist, who we hear on the show we are re-airing this week, “In Your Dreams.” When I interviewed her in our Madison, Wisconsin studio, she mentioned she does not have or want a car, like many New Yorkers. After this dream, I pictured one of her cartoons headlined “New Yorker Nightmares,” and “I won a car” as one of them.
Also in this episode you’ll hear from psychologist Rubin Naiman on being “dream deprived,” Annabel Abbs-Streets on embracing the night self, and Kelly Bulkeley on the spiritual wonder of dreams. What are you dreaming these days?
– Shannon