the life force

I woke up today from a dream that really made me think.  I dreamt that I came across some kind of organism that had a clear jelly coating that was so beautiful, it caused every one to feel happy and to feel joy by just looking at it.  I couldn't figure out why it was so beautiful, it just kind of had earth colors, but it had some kind of inner light to it that just glowed with energy, it's really hard to describe.

When I woke up, I started thinking about it and then I realized what made it so beautiful was because it glowed with the life force.  And then I started thinking what life would be like if such an organism really existed, that it must have come from some place not on earth.  If it multiplied, there would be some kind of utopian development that would take place, people would feel so joyous that there were be no war, no one would want to hurt each other, and everyone would share everything.  I considered writing a short story to describe what would happen.

Then I started thinking about the nursing home.  I thought about how much effort is put into keeping even the minimally alive living, and how, whether we recognize it or not, life is a driving force for human beings.  It is really the exception when people do not want to live, although it does happen.  I thought about my father and how he decided he didn't want to live under the conditions he would have to live under (constant medical care, not being ambulatory, stuck in bed, and waiting for death to come).  I also thought about my mother who fought death until her very last breath, and how there were tons of people in the hospital who were there to help her fight it and stay alive.  I thought about all the people I know who are living in my brother's nursing home, and although they might not be happy, they are all alive and would like to stay that way (at least most of them, the ones that are still cognizant.)

Which gets me back to my dream and my musings about utopia.  There is something about life that touches the soul, that has some special force, that is hard to ignore, and there must be something about the interaction of this force with our brains.  Why else was I so overcome with pleasure and rapture when I encountered life in my dream?  Why is it that people can so easily get out touch with this basic drive of the human condition?

When I told a friend today about my dream, she asked me if I had been taking hallucinogens lately!  I laughed.