Primitive people knew this. Aboriginal people world-wide still use dreams to help them through life. The Senoi tribe of Malaysia make it a morning ritual to tell what dreams they have had the night before. There are tribes in Africa who also have this custom.
The Australian aborigines have their Dreamtime beliefs. It is an important part of their lives, and many myths and stories have been passed down about Dreamtime. Native Americans also put much faith in their dreams. One way they do this is the Vision Quest whereby a boy becomes a man.
In honor of Dreams I have written this short story about one young man and his Vision Quest.
Dawn began to light the sky. A phospherescent mist drifted out of the trees and across the water. Lenny sat on the highest hill overlooking Half Moon Lake. He'd been sitting there since just before sunset of the previous day.
Old Nokum insisted he go on this vision quest. His Grandmother lived in the past, lived with her memories of the old ones, the Manitous, and the Windigoes. He knew nothing about these things, and didn't want to know.
Folks in town, Lenny thought, white folks, now they knew better. Didn't even go to church, most of them. Well, one thing for sure. I do not want or need any dumb spirit guide!
Still, he had been unable to break that final tie that bound him to Deer Creek Reserve. His grandmother lived alone and grew old. She needed him, and so he came once a month and did what he could to make her final days happy.
But this was too much. "You are a man now, and still you have not gone on your vision quest," she said again and again each time he visited her. He'd smiled at her words, but her anger always stopped him cold..
"You maybe live like a white man," she said, "but you are still a Woodland Cree from Deer Creek Reserve in your heart. You will go. Tomorrow you will go. Today you must fast and cleanse the poisons from your body."
So he'd fasted. No other choice. Grandmother might be growing old, but she still had eyes like an eagle. She gave him no chance to snitch a piece of whitefish or a slice of dry meat. A sip of water now and then, that was all.
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