For my Unit 4 action project, our responsibility as students was to make our own dream catcher! The purpose of this piece was to dive deep into our dream world and our unconscious, so we could analyze a specific dream and talk about it’s meaning. Throughout this
project, I am most proud of my ability to share my personal dreams with people. I am also happy with my finished product: I drawing of a dream catcher. Through this process, I learned about different philosopher’s opinions on was our class studied. After some research, I was able to look into my own beliefs and decode them and connect with a few, and disagree with some, while taking in information from each side. This was a good lesson because it taught me that there isn’t one correct answer when it comes to philosophy, but each different philosopher and scientist thinks there is.
My Action Project for my English and Science course in Unit 4, “Dreams,” was the most complex by far. There were many steps to creating my final product, a dreamcatcher. The first of the steps was to brainstorm my own personal dreams and choose one to focus on throughout the entire unit. Then, I discussed my chosen dream with a dream partner in my family. The whole process of sharing my dream was rather relaxing. I chose to share with my mom, because she is someone with whom I had a pre-established level of trust with. I knew she wouldn’t judge me for what I dreamed and that she would have some pleasant insight and advice. If I chose someone else, I would have felt self conscious about the silliness of my dream. We began our interaction sitting comfortably as I told her my dream.
I was babysitting Blue Ivy, the daughter of Beyonce, when I got wrapped up in a TV show. I heard the alarm of the door go off and I went outside in a panic, only to see Blue Ivy crawling into a dark forest in the backyard of the huge house. I started crying and called Beyonce. She appeared in a red oscar dress and told me I had to leave without being paid.
When I questioned my mother about what she would think if my dream was hers, she decided to put her answer into one simple sentence, “I would understand it to mean that the electronic distractions of life cause me to miss out on important things, even to the point of danger.”
Once I received that insight, it was time for me to begin creating my dreamcatcher, while also focusing on the ideas behind it. I decided to draw my dream catcher on paper, because I love to draw. I placed an angry spider on the corner of my drawing, symbolizing nightmares and negative thoughts. This is the unconscious that my dreamcatcher banishes, and prevents from reaching my sleeping being. I made the inside of my dreamcatcher scraggly like a spider’s web. I believe that the web is a metaphor for the energy that connects all of life, and the evidence from my life supporting that statement is conclusive. Many times, I have ran into people spontaneously, or I have called a friend when she was just picking up the phone to dial me.
I also believe that our conscious has a ripple effect on everything around us. I am willing to listen to ancient stories that support that point of view because I believe the ancient people were connected to the energy of life in a way that most people aren’t today. Interestingly enough, this point connects us again to the point my mother made about my dream, like a spider coming back to it’s web. If I was more clever, I would have thought of a more appropriate metaphor. I think the inside of my dreamcatcher symbolizes the unconscious. I agree with Freud, who considered the unconscious slightly negative, where unpleasant experiences are buried and hidden. However, the open parts of my dreamcatcher are the spaces where the good can pass through, allowing me positivity.