A to Z Reveal: Questions_FOOLS KNOW; THE WISE QUESTION

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” 

- Voltaire 

My theme for this April is Questions

What kind of questions?  

Ah, you will have to turn in each day to find out.

“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided 

if people would simply take the time to ask, "What else could this mean?”

- Mark Twain

“There exists a passion for comprehension, 

just as there exists a passion for music. 

That passion is rather common in children, 

but gets lost in most people later on.” 

- Albert Einstein

 

“Reason is a tool, a machine, which is driven by the spiritual fire,” 

- Dostoyevsky (contemplating how we come to know truth)

 

TAKE THE QUESTION OF

DREAMS --

 

Why can we not remember most dreams?

 

When we sleep, we enter a "dim and ancient house of shadow."

We wander through its rooms, climb staircases, linger on a landing. 

Towards morning we leave the house again. 

In the doorway we look over our shoulders briefly 

and with the morning light flooding in, 

we can still catch a glimpse of the rooms where we spent the night. 

Then the door closes behind us 

and a few hours later,

 even those fragmentary memories we had when we woke have been wiped away.

It seems like a pact with the devil. 

As soon as you're in a position to record a dream, it starts to disappear.

 One possibility is that our brain's neuro-chemicals during sleep are very different 

from during wake time and so they don't allow us to consolidate memory. 

The other thing that's quite possible is 

 that we don't pay attention to our dreams or are unable to do so during sleep.

Those who are light sleepers, frequently awakening, tend to remember dreams better

 

Also strange, unsettling dreams

tend to stick in our minds, too!

 

WHY DO YOU THINK WE CANNOT REMEMBER OUR DREAMS? 

 “Sometimes it's not enough to know what things mean, 

sometimes you have to know what things don't mean.”

 - Bob Dylan