MOULTRIE, Ga. — Throughout my journalism career, I’ve written occasionally about dreams. More specifically, I’ve written about stupid dreams, which make up most of the manifestations in my dream world.

I don’t know why they have to be stupid. I’ve done some research, and I’ve read some interesting ideas on the subject. 

So a few nights ago, I dreamed I was disc harrowing on my little farm. That’s not an unusual topic for my dreams because I do a lot of that. But then it got really stupid. I was pulling the disc harrow with a bass boat. The bass boat kept choking down, and I kept trying to get it going.

The next day I told some friends about this dream. They said it was one of the craziest things they had ever heard. I told them I did not know how crazy it really was because at least three people stopped to help me get the bass boat cranked.

Now if I were back in my college psychology class, and my professor asked me what I thought this was all about, I might offer that I was struggling over whether to do some work that I was behind on or whether to go fishing. And the two issues met in my subconscious. Or maybe it had to do with those boiled okra sandwiches I’ve been enjoying.

Some very learned people have addressed dreams.

Sigmund Freud’s theory was that your dreams are an expression of what you’re repressing during the time you are awake. And Carl Jung believed that dreams provide messages about “lost” or “neglected” parts of ourselves that need to be reintegrated. He said many dreams simply come from a preoccupation with the day’s activities. But some offer rich, symbolic expressions — an interface between the conscious and the unconscious that can fill in the gaps of our self-knowledge and provide information and insight.

In his book “Tapping the Power of Dreams”, Robert Moss writes, “Dreams are open vistas of possibility that take us beyond our everyday self-limiting beliefs and behaviors.” And he said before we dismiss these events as  ‘only a dream’ — we should examine carefully whether there are clues in the dreams that could help us to manifest such “juicy visions.”

Well I’m not sure where my disc harrow and bass boat episode fits in there. I own a harrow and a small boat, and I’m not aware that I’ve suppressed anything relative to owning and operating them.

One theorist says that we all dream every night, and some people remember their dreams and some don’t. Another theorist said that all mammals and some birds dream. I don’t know where that comes from, but I have seen my dogs twitch and yelp while they were asleep, like they were chasing rabbits. 

Some researchers say most dreams occur during deep sleep known as “REM” sleep. It’s also suggested that lucrative ideas sometime come from dreams.

Supposedly monster.com came to Jeff Taylor in a dream. And Jack Nicklaus had a dream of a new golf grip. Some people believe that dreams can give us directions. I think this may come from the Old Testament.

Now I thinking about my dream and if I should try to draw some direction or conclusion from it. So given the circumstances of that “REM” moment, I’m thinking it’s telling me that I should get a bigger boat — one with a lot more horsepower. I may run that one by my wife and see if it floats.

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. Email: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)