While I'm not a subscriber to the current fad of eschatological fervor, nor do I consider myself particularly old, I have recently been having a lot of strange dreams recently, which has led me to think of the verse from Acts,

"'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

Prior to this, it has been a while since I remembered many of my dreams, and even longer since I've had any disturbing dreams, but some of these dreams have bordered on disturbing. As an example, in one dream, Kim pushed a salesman down a ladder when he tried a particularly upsetting bait and switch. The man was rushed off to a hospital and was replaced by his brother, an even more annoying sales person. In another dreams, I ran into some people I had worked with over two decades ago. It was at an airport, with all kinds of issues with getting through security, waiting for long periods in the frequent flyer lounges that even had exercise machines. One of my friends got into some sort of indeterminate trouble.

Last night, some of the same characters returned in a dream that had a similar feel. I was working in some space, with lots of small offices and there was some sort of technology issue or an upgrade going on. At another point, I was at some sort of large conference. Taking various passage ways, I ended up in a large building with multiple floors of gyms. These were high end gyms available to people working for specific companies, and I was given a tour of the facility by the person in charge of the company that owned the facility. The spaces reflected the companies they were serving. Generally, they were healthy, but one floor, dedicated to muckraking journalists was had a smoking room packed with humidors and cigars.

Now, there isn't anything prophetic or revelatory I can find in these dreams, but it has returned me to thinking about dreams. Can we learn anything interesting from them, about ourselves or the cultures we are living in? Can they provide us ideas about what is to come, or actions we should take to make our world better?