Date: 12-11-2021
Last night I dreamt I was ice skating with my parents, somewhere in my home town. There was farmland around us, and we were ice skating on the little canals in between the plots of land. My dad wore what we call “lange noren” which are a kind of long ice skates, very typical Dutch things to have. And my dad was exceptionally good at ice skating. My mom and I were struggling to get any momentum, and the ice was thin and fractured also, which didn’t help. And the further along we went, the more the ice became patchy, until there was more water than ice, and we had to hop from ice sheet to ice sheet. My mother didn’t even wear ice skates, but was instead wearing normal shoes. I’m not sure if I wore ice skates myself or not. But my dad was unhindered by the patchy ice, and advanced over the water just as smoothly as he traversed the ice, pirouetting and making sharp turns, and going circles around us as if to taunt us. My mom and I struggled ever more, and it was now a fact that if we lost too much speed we would “crash through the ice” of which there was ever less of.
My mom started complaining to my dad about how it is impossible to ice skate without wearing actual ice skates, as if that was his idea, or he had caused her to forget them or not bring them. I did agree with her though and emphasized her point that ice skating without actual ice skates is indeed very difficult to do, but I did so because I was actually afraid to fall into the water myself too. My dad remained completely calm and suggested we go off the ice and walk along side the water. With the agility of an athlete he jumped on land, and helped my mom off the ice and onto the solid ground of the bank. I was still moving forward but also losing speed. I was about to crash through the ice but then he came to my rescue. I recall I jumped from ice sheet to ice sheet, and it was almost too late, but here he came and he pulled me onto the bank too. I was now some distance away from my mom now. I didn’t see her any more. Immediately after helping me my dad got back on the ice and skated away with such ease and agility, and he gained a lot of speed and disappeared into the distance. I was completely alone now.
The evening was setting in as it got darker. I walked for a while until I ended up at the traffic square in front of the local pizzeria here in my home town. It looked like I hadn’t been here a while. Things had changed. Of the many changes one thing stood out most; there were ‘crowd control barriers’ everywhere. Put there by the authorities. Some areas were cordoned off by police ribbons. There were also road works taking place, even at this hour, and I also saw military barriers, with high end barbed wire and 3 armoured vehicles (perhaps light tanks) guarding the area, each parked at a strategic location. Their colour was desert camo, as if they had been last used in the second golf war. There was also a legion of soldiers present, spread out over the area, walking patrol shifts. To the left of me (near the pizzeria) there were a lot of soldiers and civilians that were working together. They were “of the same team” for lack of a better way to describe it. They had constructed a large protective barrier so that no person could go past the pizzeria. They had also made trenches in the street. These served a military goal (to take cover and as firing position) but also an engineering purpose. Something to do with underground wiring.
It turned out to be Greek soldiers who were sent to our country. In the dream I could understand Greek. I understood what the soldiers and civilians were saying. To the right of me in front of the town hall and the streets opposite to the barrier I saw many of my fellow townspeople. Generic people, no one specific. They had their faces covered with shawls and handkerchiefs, like they were bandits or rioters. They jeered at the Greek soldiers. Some even threw rocks at them. Everyone seemed tense and scared, not just the townspeople but also the Greek people. The latter shouted desperate pleas in Greek through megaphones: “We only want to help you!” But I knew not a single person of the other side understood what they said in Greek. And even so, I doubt they would believe anything they had to say. I started shouting something back at the Greeks (in Dutch): “We just want to live here!” I repeated this a few times. Some of my fellow townsmen joined in and repeated what I had shouted. It wasn’t uniform or organised, but we got our point across that we were in alignment about not appreciating their presence. It seemed we were clear in getting the message across we were no longer going to listen to the government, and would instead ignore all their demands. We would just continue on with our lives despite any government efforts to hinder us in doing so.
The Greeks somehow did understand us, and our response caused them to become completely confused. They simply did not understand why we no longer wanted their help. They were completely convinced we would not fare at all without them, and just couldn’t understand how it was possible we seemed to be succeeding without their aid in anything we did. Somehow our protest was proof of how well we could organise ourselves. The Greeks continued to follow the orders they were given even though it was stupendously evident it was all time and effort wasted on their part, as the people they thought they were helping didn’t need their help, nor wanted it. They just didn’t understand what they experienced here and seemed unable to draw their own conclusions. They saw these foreigners as imbeciles. Their conclusion was that all people of this town must’ve completely lost their minds, for reasons unknown. The townspeople in return couldn’t understand how those Greeks just kept following orders without subjecting those orders to some critical thought. Luckily the conflict did not lead to a battle scene. It ended with two sides of opposites who each stood their ground and did their own thing on their side of the fence.
