The "Wunder" of Wesley

I've had two interesting dreams this past week. The first was preceded by my ruminations of what I'd name a son or daughter I might have someday. Then, in the dream, I was in a scenario with this teenage boy, Wesley, with whose family I boarded about a decade ago. "Wesley" wasn't a name I'd thought of in a long time, but it's always been a favorite. There's also "Wesley Crusher" from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and, of course, his namesake, the creator of Star Trek, Eugene "Wesley" Roddenberry (RIP).

OK, so that dream was pretty straightforward, right? I got the name I was looking for. Wrong. The dream turned into a scary/bizarre situation in which drugs were being sold out of the house at all hours of the night.

I had the second dream earlier this evening. I was a Starfleet officer who'd been marooned on an Earth-type planet populated by humans. I met a teenage boy on a hilltop. He was watching as military forces prepared to attack the hilltop from this vast, open plain laid out below. The enemy fired a few test shots, so the boy and I dove into his car and sped to his house, where, miraculously, he had an escape pod set up in his bedroom, aimed out the window. He was going to escape and I was going with him.

So, what do we have? First, I'm in a house with drug deals going on throughout the night, and although the comings and goings of strangers scares me, my primary concern is that I won't be able to get enough sleep. Second, I'm marooned on a planet with two nations about to go to war, and some boy turns out to be my savior.

First, I don't know what to make of the drug dealings scenario because I've never been involved with drugs. However, the fear of sleep deprivation has always been at the core of my being. Second, I'm caught amid some ridiculous adult squabbling, but a wunderkind saves me.

Interesting ... although my friend Wesley wasn't the boy in the second dream, the fictional Wesley Crusher was a wunderkind. In addition, the presence of children in both dreams reminds me that I'm so much more fascinated by youngsters because they're brutally honest. They tell it like it is. They ask the hard questions. There's no politics involved. They'll tell anyone when something about their behavior doesn't seem right. (Aside: Wait until I write about the amazing insight my five-year-old nephew suddenly sprung on me during Christmas dinner!) It makes me wonder why we groom children to follow the examples of adults when it's blatantly clear that we adults should be following their example when it comes to running the world: Cut the bullshit and stop making things so complicated.