Dreaming in the Dark

I rarely remember my dreams, and maybe that's a good thing, because last night--or I should say this morning, when I was in that deep second sleep after waking up to the barking of a hungry dog--my silenced, but buzzing, phone dragged me from a nightmare that seemed like it would never end on its own. I'm superstitious, so I won't try to assemble the pieces aloud, but in the dream I was told that I was 4% sick, 96% healthy, and I was terrified, in an unknown house where the apartments were divided by curtains instead of walls, and none of the phones worked.

I attract people who have premonitions, powers, who are just plain tuned in to all the information that is out there.  For a fascinating example, read the first chapter of my friend, Kim Sillen Gledhill's book, Seeing in the Dark at her website seeinginthedark.net.

Kim also introduced me to The Paranormalist, and in a moment of synchronicity, I sent the link to my friend Kory, who had recently reported having a dish-washing ghost (only Kory would have a tidy ghost, for reasons that will have to be explained later).  Kory's response? "You know me so well...need any "psychic" help?"  I'd forgotten Kory is one of those special people, too. But maybe the point is that I unconsciously remembered. . . .

And did I mention that I met Kim just where I saw the apparition of Rachel, which I wrote about below?

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REDLIGHT on Showtime

“REDLIGHT”




to Air Tonight

on SHOWTIME®



8:00 PM ET/PT









If you missed the red-carpet premiere screening of REDLIGHT this past June in New York City, please tune in tonight on Showtime®.



REDLIGHT, a powerful feature film documentary exposing the horrors of the illegal sex trade market in Southeast Asia, will make its television premiere on SHOWTIME® on Thursday, September 9th at 8pm ET/PT and on-demand from 09/10/10 until 10/07/10. The film is narrated by actress/producer/UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lucy Liu.

Also available OnDemand.

Ghosts

I was just leaving the last of the Grand Rounds in Columbia's program in Narrative and Medicine and, walking out in the light, warm evening I thought I saw Rachel - again. Columbia and everywhere around it was the part of New York that Rachel called home, but I wasn't thinking about that when I glimpsed - only for a second - a tall, pale, slim woman with Rachel's blue eyes and uncontrollable hair. How long will Rachel haunt all of us, who enjoyed her smiles and raucous laughter (when they were there), but never told her; who thought she was a brilliant talent, but only sometimes told her; who wanted to be her friend, but didn't know how.

After that awful day in December, that shocking phone call, the helplessness settled in on me like a thick fog; I was in despair, but it seemed way out of proportion, because in truth, I didn't know Rachel that well. We never went out for drinks, never went to a museum or had dinner. But I'd met her long before I ever knew where I would wind up, and in the six degrees of separation, she was only at a single remove. When I arrived, she greeted me with genuine pleasure, and I felt proud to say that we were already acquainted.

The spring semester started maybe three weeks later, and my fog had dissipated enough to let me get some work done. But as I was going up the elevator, a chill seized me: because it was always in the sunny airy atrium space where the elevator opened up that I would run into Rachel, coming out of her office, and there we would chat, never in a darkish, crowded office, but always in full view, in the sun. I always thought there would be time, for us to hang out, one day, always one day.

Extra credit...

...for anyone who can tell me where I got the blogname from.