"Courage in Disagreement"

The radio recording "Listening Beyond Life and Choice: The Civil Conversations Project" reminded me that I have to speak up in class even when I do face the faintest disagreement. Frances Kissling, a dedicated activist on ProChoice abortion, refrained from speaking about women's rights to an abortion and  focused on the underlying problems of discourse  between two entities with different ideologies. In her years of activism, she was faced with the lack of constructive dialogue between her ProChoice side and the ProLife activists and described how there may not be a possible common ground when there are deep differences between two groups. One has to acknowledge their position in a debate and have the "courage to be vulnerable with person who you disagree with".

Although I was not in complete disagreement with the "dreams as a reality" discussion in class on Tuesday, I did however was very questioning (in mind) about the topic. I sat back and listened, trying to understand how one classmate may think of dreams as a reality (of multi-realities?). In reference to Kissling's radio discussion, there was no way for me to set a common ground for understanding when I did not share my (slight even if not deep) differences and idea on the topic. 

Whenever I wake up, I am reminded of  fog-like dream(s) I had that night but cannot really recreate the story with my eyes wide open. Sometimes, when I'm lucky, some dreams are sieved out but tend to have a boring storyline. I do remember having vivid nightmares when I was younger.  I sleep-talked, sleep-walked, and woke up the entire house sobbing in tears. It was really bad. As I try to recollect what those dreams were, I get flashes of an obscure scene, a tunnel, maybe with monsters or some sort of ghost that haunted me. I am not sure what it was but, as mentioned from the "Memory and Forgetting" radio lab, I am simply recreating a memory, a somewhat "faked" version of what was really going on in my dreams that is relative to my current state right now. My parents eventually took me to a psychologist (or psychiatrist? not sure who it was) who asked me to draw something (thinking that I might draw out some monsters or some obscure thing) and talk about what I remember from my dreams. For some reason, after drawing a nice tree with some grass and birds and saying how I saw des monstres,  those nightmares stopped haunting me and I am left with occasional sleep-talking and a faint remembrance of a dream worth sharing.

I cannot really describe dreams as a reality; an unclear, vague, and indefinite reality sounds somewhat perturbing. But, I should have still talked out in class, to try to at least understand how one can make a reality of their dreams. I have tried to figure out that dreams, as a mirror of the subconscious, may still represent one's reality as it displays what is in one's mind.

Ah well, a lesson to be learned. As we continue further exploring speculative fiction, I hope to break through this brick wall and have any of my disagreements (if any) spoken out and shared.

Citations:

http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2011/ccp-kissling/