Dreaming of Donald Trump
Nightmare or Dream, the outer occupies the inner world
It could have been from recently watching the film, “The Godfather,” but on Friday, I dreamed of Donald Trump and Elon Musk as leaders of a kind of crime-boss family. In my dream, all the events unfolded underground in a cave-like setting with groups of people, primarily men. The storyline focused on this group deeply engaged in conversation and planning while I slowly attempted to extricate myself from the room. I found myself sneaking out—trying to, like a cartoon character from those classic 1960s black-and-white animations. Like many dreams, a combination of the absurd and the comical dominated the storyline.
Recently, I traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, to lead a retreat on Everyday Spirituality for a small group of people earnestly seeking a connection to the sacred and a respite from a weary world. While there, someone shared a dream that featured the current U.S. president. I suspect these dreams are occurring more frequently.
It’s not unusual for our psyches to grab images, symbols, and metaphors from the surrounding environment. This occurred with great frequency during the height of COVID-19. You can read quite a bit of research on Covid related dreams on the website sleepanddreamdatabase.org
If you go to that website and type “Trump” into the search bar, you’ll find many dreams, including him or characterizations of the man.
In the introduction to his book Politics in a Traumatized World, the editor, Thomas Singer, M.D., articulates something that hints at the intersection of our inner and outer worlds.
Our U.S. politics have become inseparable from cultural conflicts and these conflicts often touch on archetypal themes embedded in cultural complexes. These cultural complexes express themselves in symbolic images and policies, such as the building of a wall to keep dangerous “others” out of the United States or the threat of the rise of authoritarianism in America and abroad triggering fears of repressive dictatorships, symbolized historically by Hitler or Stalin.
External circumstances influence our inner lives, and the inner realm shapes our outer lives. While the two may seem distinct, they are interconnected. While a “wall” might separate them, it is relatively permeable.
We have a lot going on in our world and within our souls. Personally, I believe we have reached a point of significant societal and spiritual crisis. Chaos roams about; the center cannot hold, to borrow from W.B. Yeats’ poem. In the end, this transition will yield a better world, but getting there will be stormy. In times like these, we must find ways to navigate our circumstances.
Some of us will get active politically and socially. Here, I think of those choosing to protest, resist, and organize through various means.
Some of us will choose to create micro-communities of support. In times of chaos, people need people who can provide a temporary shield from the onslaught of images and actions.
Some of us will seek to express ourselves creatively. Artists, musicians, and writers express pain and power through their work, which is needed now more than ever.
The common thread in these responses, and undoubtedly others I haven’t mentioned, is actively engaging in the situation instead of passively allowing it to overwhelm you. This is not a time to waste hours scrolling through Facebook or watching cable news. Yes, we all need to find a balance between staying informed and maintaining our sanity. But, monitor yourself, for these distraction platforms are not intended for our well-being. I encourage you to seek ways to be proactive, ideally within a community, so that encouragement and productivity can flourish. These are not times to go it alone.
The Danish Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard offers some wisdom for times like these.
And this is the simple truth—that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce.
We live in shipwrecked times, and we are all shipwrecked individuals. But then again, all my favorite people are shipwrecked. Instead of running from it and pretending, “All is well, what’s the problem? Everyone’s a good soul,” let’s embrace our inner and outer shipwreck and work to build a new vessel.
Because the truth is, we need shipbuilders even while those creating the storm are occupying our dream world.
More to Come,
James Hazelwood is the author of several books on contemporary spirituality, including Ordinary Mysteries: Faith, Doubt, and Meaning. His writing, speaking and photography can be found at www.jameshazelwood.net