Tales from the Steppes

2004-01-12

1:35 p.m.
the dreaming tree

On my way in to work this morning, I was listening to the Dave Matthews Band cd �Before These Crowded Streets.� I bought it over the weekend because I really wanted a copy of �Crush,� which is in my top five list of favorite love songs. The album version is much better than even the single version. One of the things I really like about DMB is that they have a layered sound and I can choose which part to follow. Sort of like the Grateful Dead or JS Bach. Definitely keeps the music more interesting.

Anyway, I actually made it past that song to the next one �The Dreaming Tree� and was totally blown away. Not just by the song itself but also by the images it generated. I started wondering just what a dreaming tree looks like. Maybe it is a tree with dreams attached to it, like strange multi-hued fruit. I am not certain if the dreams look like translucent spheres or maybe they are shaped like people. This image might be a little too close to Billie Holiday�s �Strange Fruit.� Haven�t heard it? Think lynchings�. Not a pretty picture, though a very evocative one. Perhaps everyone�s tree is different; different species and sizes.

To me, a dreaming tree would have to be large, but I suppose that is not universal. There is a beech tree at Dumbarton Oaks that is huge and has low branches for sitting or even napping on. I think for me, that is the perfect tree. To me, the dreaming tree must be the uber-tree, the very essence of treeness. Maybe a baobab is more primeval, but in this temperate climate, a beech is more appropriate.

I guess a bigger question is what do the dreams represent? Are they our waking dreams, that change and morph with the seasons? Or is this the deposit for our subconscious? Or is it open to interpretation?

I am writing all of this because I do not have a sketchbook with me and if I do not write it now, I will lose this train of thought. This seems like as good a way as any other to make certain I remember this. If I were to write myself a note, it would not be in complete sentences and chances are good that when I actually found my note, I would have no idea of it�s meaning. Hopefully, the song and graphic description will be enough to remind me of the various compositions I am seeing until I am able to draw them out. In my copious spare time. The other thing that might happen is that one of you may read this and have thoughts upon it that will change my thinking. Always a good thing.