The earth staggers like a drunken man, it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again. Isaiah 24:20 RSV
So a couple of nights ago I had the most vivid and bizarre dream. It was like none I had ever experienced before. When I was awoken by the dream I actually sat up in bed and wrote down all of the details. One of my sons, who I sent the details of the dream to, ever the realist, said it was an allegory for all of the uncertainty in my world with Covid-19. I love my son very much, but I don’t agree with his opinion.
So here’s the dream: I was in my parents house in my old room. I felt the earth rumbling and I ran to the other downstairs bedroom where I found both my sons. I was successful in waking my sons up but they kept falling asleep.
This wasn’t a normal earthquake. The whole earth felt like it was trembling and moving in a very bizarre fashion. Like we had been pulled from the orbit of the sun and were hurling through space. It went on and on and it was terrifying. For some reason we were afraid that we were going to be hit by another planet, asteroid or other object in space. Shaking. Undulating movements. On and on. Fear of an object smashing into the side of the earth and being crushed on impact.
We tried to look out the window to see what was going on. We wanted to see if the stars were moving, which would confirm the earth was hurtling through space. The electricity was off in the neighborhood. And it was cloudy so we could not see the sky. There was one other thing; there was debris in the air. Dust was falling like rain.
So as the shaking and rumbling went on and on, for what seemed like forever, my sons kept falling asleep. Then, suddenly the room we were in began to break away from the house and the whole earth beneath us was breaking into pieces. The room kept moving and eventually ended up in the lake next to my parents house. As the room began to sink under the water I was desperately trying to wake up my sons, so we could escape through the hole that had opened in the room.
Then I awoke, terrified and sweating. I swear I felt an earthquake as I awoke. Then I remembered the dream and wrote it down.