Something weird is happening. Top Ramen keeps popping up in my dreams. This is not a joke. I can be dreaming about Africa or snow skiing or world war and it will find a way in. It's like a really bad commercial, over and over. Not that I'm necessarily aware of it during my dreams. No, it's during the light of day, when I'm thinking about what to eat, and I think, "hmm Top Ramen sounds tasty" that the dreams come back to me. Example. Here's the conversation I had with myself today:
Me: maybe I should go to the store to get some food for lunch and dinner.
Me: no, I'll just have Top Ramen.
Me: I don't have any Top Ramen. It's all gone. I'm trying to quit.
Me: Yes, I do. It's right behind the counter...
and then a look behind the counter confirms--NO TOP RAMEN. It was just a dream. who puts Top Ramen behind the counter anyway, except in dreams?
So, the concerning part is what does it all mean? I'm pretty sure even Carl Jung himself would be stumped to deconstruct this modern archetype. Advise me, oh blogreaders.
4 comments:
well cath, I have some answers for you. I don't know what your dreams mean, but I do know how you can have more of them and actually create lucid dreams, or dreams in which you know you are dreaming but are able to still function in the dream world. My junior year in college I took a week off to attend a dream camp in new mexico. We studied all kinds of ways to induce lucid dreams and do you know what one of the most effective methods was???? MSG, very common in Chinese food and in that little flavor packet of top ramen. Your subconscious is talking to you. It is calling out to your unnatural addiction to MSG. this is commonly seen in treatment of those with substance abuse issues. It is just important that you know that if you do not curb this behavior soon it could develop into nightmares, hallucinations, and migraines. If you like the feeling of the lucid dreams (some do and some don't) then I suggest top ramen right before bed. Give it a shot and you will be able to recreate the experience.
so here's my theory. I think the presence of top ramen represents your feelings of security, and the fact that you feel compelled to hide it in various places in your dreams (from snow skiing to africa to world war, no less - and we could have another discourse about those particular locations) ANYWAY, it suggests a fear that your security and stability is threatened. so you're hoarding top ramen in an effort to assuage that impending anxiety.
the other theory, to carry on where jim left off, is that you are in fact addicted to top ramen. so here you are, trying to quit, with your intelligent rational self because you know that it does nothing for you and isn't even good for you (except for emotionally, apparently, where it has a strong connection) but the primal and irrational part of your mind is sending out distress signals begging you to bring it back and trying to convince you that you not only want it, but you need it! stay strong, cath. stay strong. you're better off without it!
I was going to be really upset if you had really found Top Ramen stashed behind the counter. Of course, that is a perfectly logical reason to stash it behind the counter, to keep it from your loving sister who was desperately wanting some two days ago and there was none to be found. Deep in the recesses of my head I was thinking, I bet she stashed some Top Ramen somewhere...
I'd dream about Ramen too, that is, if I wasn't already satisfying my addiction by eating it during the day.
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