Making a better world means to avoid the 'one-eyed, one horned, flying purple people eaters'

Shades of purple

Carol Forsloff---Never mind those "One-eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eaters," be purple in your politics and social manners too.  That's red and blue blended together in the United States, the primary colors representing its political divisions.  But across the world the color purple can be central to change and being in charge, so that like the crayons in a box of many colors we can be fused into something beautiful when we work together peacefully.

Sometimes purple needs some white thrown in for tone. Or brown. That means purple can be dark or light and come in various tones.  Working together and combining our talents and skills, as well as our dreams, may mean those variations. Purple is the color of royalty and being in charge.  In other words, it puts all of us around the world in charge of ourselves and each other, especially in a world where problems are great.

When we were all little, we enjoyed our crayons and paper that we used for our drawings. We also had watercolors of different hues that we could swirl around on a piece of paper and make pictures. Most of us say we enjoy seeing a rainbow in the sky and myriad flowers in gardens around our home or in our towns. In many towns across the world,, our gardens and our homes are as diverse as we are. So we're as special as is the whole world. We come in all shades. Sometimes, however, just like the whole world, diversity of color isn't appreciated, and it should be, because that is what nature is all about. That is what we love when we played with those colors as children and when we look at a rainbow or stop and smell those roses. As children we knew all of the colors made pictures that were far better than the ones we drew with our pencils. But diversity is different than divisions, for as painters know colors become more beautiful when they are fused with shades of others.  Separate colors, or primary ones, are like those one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eaters that don't allow compromise and unity, the kind of unity that can help people work together.  It is essential for progress.  But purple should be paramount in our thoughts, as representing that fusion of colors that makes for a beautiful whole.

In the world of today we live on the edge of climate disasters, disease outbreaks, and political upheavals.  In the United States, at the time of the first election of Barack Obama as the United States' first black President, polls found that 30% of the people would not vote for a black man.  That 30% was vocal both before and after the election, with the result that racial harmony today is undermined by the consistent racial difficulties brought about by attitudes that are like single colors.  Attitudes are those crayons in a box that create landscapes of tones of just the primary colors in ways that are sharp, resulting in a painting that appears crude as a result.

 There are people who tell us that 30% was not a big enough difference in attitude.  But the actual percentage can be very influential in changing a country's direction. Across the world, it can also make a big difference in whether people are able to work together, as it is often the negatives in our miidst, those who are the most shrill, who loudly proclaim their rights that override those of others.  They drown out those purple people who often work so hard to modify and ameliorate difficulties, yet are not as wantonly aggressive in their tactics.  30% of the people who isolate race or any divisive factor can make a big difference in what happens to the rest of us going forward.

We are many in this count of purple people who dream in color, just as we did when we were kids and hope that those of you who read this will do so as well. We can defeat those "One-Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eaters" from that old song of the early 1950's. We dream about people of many colors doing whatever they want to do from teaching in schools, to serving as ministers, to running corporations and to leading the United States as well as other countries who seek, or have achieved, the interest to move forward. We don't want artificial barriers to prevent folks from reaching their goals and finding their dreams. Those were the dreams of Martin Luther King in America and Gandhi in India.

We dream in color. It wasn't always possible to dream that way in reality, and it's still a struggle, even in the developed nations who pride themselves on the freedom to select their own governments and their own directions.

How can we facilitate the purple as the color of choice in a box of separate colors called our world?
All of us can start by extending our hearts and hands to people of different races than ourselves. We can paint our lives in color. Dreaming in color allows us to realize the notion that we are all connected.  Perhaps the greatest wish of the holiday season, or every season where hope and love are the centerpiece--which means daily--is for everyone to dream in colors, setting the color purple as the right choice of blending and beautifying our world, representing the royalty in all of us.

Science establishes learning is aided by dreams

Dreaming can aid learning

The movie Inception brought up considerable discussion on the nature of sleeping and dreaming.  In the film learning was established through dreaming, so the character acted on the dreams when he awakened and at times could not distinguish between dreams and reality.  But is it really possible to plant an idea while sleeping and can people learn during the process of sleeping and dreaming?

It turns out that science supports some of the notions presented in the film, although some of the ideas, with the layers of dreaming and the specific extraction, may be a bit far-fetched.
For one thing learning is possible during sleep. There are websites actually devoted to selling tapes and memory devices to aid learning while sleeping that range from special tapes to meditation manuals.

Sleep has been found to be a time when learning can take place. But the amount we sleep is not correlated with a longer phase for learning. In fact, reasonable sleep of 5 to 8 hours seems to be supportive of memory, while longer periods of habitual sleep have been shown to relate to certain health problems. Actually it has been found in certain studies that those who sleep 7 hours a night live longer than those who sleep 9 hours.  Furthermore what is learned can be permanent, as the research on sleeping and dreaming observes that the learning can be life-long.

Dreaming about something can reinforce the memory of it. Scientists have found that having subjects dream about a special maze or puzzle aided people in recall of the specifics of it in comparison with those who stayed awake and did not dream of it. This same research offered the possibility that we actually dream in order to keep learning.

The research on the benefits of dreaming reinforces the fact that dreaming aids in learning. In a research study scientists established that people who dream about a given task end up performing it better when they wake up then people who do not sleep or do not dream.  It may be one of the reasons people say they "sleep on it" when encountering a problem, as they may have learned, from the repeated phrase, that perhaps in sleep the answer to a given problem may appear and be resolved, or the answer found, upon waking.

The process of learning while sleeping and dreaming is not just confined to adults. Recent studies found in 2010 that infants dream and learn while sleeping. The National Institutes of Health found that newborn infants are capable of a simple form of learning. The organization maintains that this will help experts identify tests that can identify infants at risk for developmental disorders as the brain reveals certain characteristics during the sleeping and dreaming process.

Furthermore some of this same research, on how people learn, has found that the more satisfying and familiar a topic, the more it will be the subject of dreams.

Finally, dreams have been a subject of scientific study. Freud looked at dreaming as part of the subconscious minds fixation on certain concepts and images. On the other hand, modern scientists are more apt to use a technique called content analysis, where the subject writes down in a journal those things that are remembered, and these are then analyzed for topic, sequence and details.  Freud's theories on dreaming remain part of the psychiatric literature for today's experts, even as they prepare for their professions.  So the issues about dreaming and behavioral change have been studied for many decades.

So can ideas or information be examined or planted in your dreams? It seems so, given the research on sleeping and dreaming. And like the film Inception revealed, it is possible to identify familiar surroundings as well as to learn during the process.

What dreams may come: Do dreams have special meaning?

Dreaming

While many people shrug off their dreams claiming they don't remember them, there are many individuals and groups who not only believe in the value of dreams but believe they are of particular significance and often help foretell the future.

Some scholars maintain that the original field of dream study was religion.  The earliest texts on dreams revealed that people thought they were of great spiritual significance.

The Talmud has elaborate discussions about dreams, and some of the early Christian scholars spoke of the value of dreams.  Some scientists maintain that dreams are part of superstitious belief, but that, some say, comes from the same notion that religion itself is superstition.  Yet scholars also wonder why dream study fascinates so many people.

It has also been observed by some researchers that small-scale societies base much of their religious beliefs on what they learn in dreams.  Belief in spirit beings comes from the dream world and was very much a part of Native American culture.

Deceased ancestors were often part of one's dreams in some of the cultures where religious beliefs encompassed what is learned from dreams.  Life after death is said to be understood and become a belief in most cultures and religions because of the nature of dreams and the fact that people reported getting messages from loved ones who had died and appeared in dreams, often offering a special message.

Christians offer a perspective on dreams that recognizes that dreams are part of Bible traditions but are careful nonetheless to explain that the study of dreams can be taken too far and that often what one believes is a vision from God may simply be a wish that is visualized and made real only in a dream.  Caution is stressed when studying dreams, and worshipers are advised to be cautious about putting too much stress on the nature of dreams.

Yet many in the Western world believe dreams have real value.  Dr. Andrew Weil, for example, believes dreaming is vital to emotional wellness.  They allow the mind to process emotions and ideas.  In addition dreaming is part of deep sleep, an important aspect of good health.

Dreams are part of man's history and a vital part of being healthy, and when they happen, many people may not remember anything but the broad outlines of some of them, whereas for others they become the mechanism for understanding the nature of life and death and from that understanding the meaning of one's very existence becomes part of the reason why people are fascinated with dreams.

Little Dreamers brings prosperity through magic of believing

[caption id="attachment_6829" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Tutus from Little Dreamers"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff - Is there hope for young families in a bad economy?   One family answers with a resounding yes, as we learn how the man and wife found a solution to underemployment while fulfilling childhood dreams.

It’s a warm and wonderful day at the Portland Saturday Market, and Little Dreamers, tucked under a colorful tent, reaches out to passersby with a colorful array of goods bound to please every little girl.  In fact those goods are the type that can often fulfill the dreams a child’s heart makes when thinking about fairy tales and pretty princesses.

Colorful fluff and stuff dangle on hangers that spread around a booth that  literally light up a little girl’s eyes.  With all the things to buy the Portland Saturday Market affords, this booth offers the magic of believing for happy children and the enterprising family that serves up the goods.

Ballet skirts, or tutus,  that can be attached to tee shirts, blouses, leotards and other pretty things, attract little girls who pass by and exclaim to mom and dad that when they wish upon a star, they dream of pretty dresses.  And nothing makes a pretty dress more magical than a tutu of frothy fun.

The business card from Little Dreamers offered to passersby at the Portland Saturday Market has a Facebook and Web address where the skirts and mobiles can be ordered.  What isn’t on that card is how this business became one that supports an entire family during difficult economic times.  “My husband worked at a pizza place, and I was employed in a factory, despite the fact we are both college graduates," Whitney explains.   She is the designer and owner of Little Dreamers Inc.  She then explained how her company has brought her prosperity through fulfilling the dreams of many little girls.  "One day I saw a  pretty ballet skirt in a window and watched my daughter’s face light up with a hope I might buy it for her.  I went inside the shop , and after looking at the garment, decided I could create a similar one and maybe even better.  That was three years ago, and now we get orders from all around the world through our email.  It takes 7 days a week of work for my husband and I to meet the growing demand.

“We believed in ourselves and our dream,” the designer, Whitney Crimefighter maintains.  “I think our pretty dresses and mobiles offer something special that folks find they can’t resist.”

One young family finds a way to prosper in a bad economy, at a time when people are trying to find traditional jobs that continue to dry up in the wake of a prolonged business downturn or who remain underemployed because good jobs for young people are scarce.  But there are always places where folks can find a niche and a way to get through hard times, in spite of the struggle it takes, as this narrative about a young family's economic survival tells us.

A Russian émigré explained one day to a journalist in conversation at a cafe in New Orleans that during the terrible times in Russia following World War II, the people who survived economically were those who sold shoes, those who made bread and those who told fortunes. “  The fortunes, he said, meant offering a form of magic to people who believe the magic has gone from their lives, the kind that Little Dreamers rekindles in the eyes of happy children, offering hope to a young family and the magic of believing for the rest of us.