The Things That Really Matter

I had a dream last night. Two factions of people were fighting, I don't remember what over. All I know is that it was trivial.

A group from one faction stood on a hill, shooting down onto a city, mostly aiming for what I believe was a church. I was with this group, though I was very reluctant to shoot the devices. They were RPGs, shooting something similar to a grenade out of a one-gallon milk jug. (Remember, this was a dream; not everything makes perfect sense.) At one point, when my turn came, I finally refused to shoot the device, and disarmed mine, throwing away the grenade, but holding on to the jug. I told the other people in my group to stop, and stood up in front of the line of fire. Another girl became very angry, and shoved a device right in my face, implying that she would shoot me to get to the target below. I remember feeling slightly nervous, but highly determined.

The scene shifted, as dreams do, and I found myself in the city, standing near a captain from the other faction and his son. The captain was very angry that I was getting in the way of fighting. I told him that we didn't have to fight. Picking up his son, who seemed around 4 or 5 years old, I asked the boy,

“If this jug were empty, what would you put in it?”

The excited reply came: “Spaghetti!”

I laughed. “Good! What else?”

He listed off several more items, mostly food, and some clothing. After each answer I prompted again. “Good! What else?” The boy ended with an elated “FISH!”.

I turned to the captain and said “If you are filling your jugs with explosives, how will you will fill them with spaghetti and fish?”  How would he fill them with the items his boy so desperately wanted and needed?

“FISH!” he yelled back at me, incredulous. His tone implied the question “Where am I going to get fish?!”

I gestured to the nearby sea, and said he was missing the point. I told him not to focus so much on the actual items as the principle.

That's where the dream ended.

And so I ask you, what is the principle? Perhaps it it this: If we spend time filling our hearts and our minds with hate, negativity, prejudice, anger, argument and grudges, how can we possibly fill them with the things that really matter?

Actually, I remember one last thing from my dream. I looked the captain in the eye and calmly, lovingly, told him “Get over it.”