Roe v. Wade in Dreams
Processing the SCOTUS Decision Consciously and Unconsciously
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We modern women all have our post Roe v Wade stories. Maybe you protested in the major city closest to you. Maybe you’ve decided to stock up on birth control — just in case. Maybe you’ve considered moving to a blue state. Maybe, just maybe, you’ve lost all kinds of sleep since the SCOTUS decision officially came down.
Last Friday night, I had the most vivid dream I can remember in a long time.
I woke up in a panic, drenched in sweat. It was so real! But I didn’t fully comprehend the connection to Roe until I debriefed Saturday morning with my husband.
My dream (read: nightmare) opened with a war games “simulation.”
I didn’t want to do that! I’m a 52 year old English teacher! In no corner of the multi-verse would I choose to be a part of any type of “war game.”
And yet. I had to. We all had to. It was men vs. women. The men chose their weapons first and started on the offense. Women would choose their weapons on the fly and then run and defend themselves. (Seriously, how did I not see the connections immediately?)
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I felt like I was in the opening scene of The Hunger Games movie that featured the cornucopia of weapons. A siren sounded and all the women ran to the cache of guns. I couldn’t find anything that would use the ammunition that I had been given, so I ran. I just ran as fast as I could.
I wasn’t too worried. According to the game’s parameters, the men were to use rubber bullets, and had strict instructions not to harm us.
I hid in an abandoned hospital (oh, the irony!). A young dude found me rather quickly and shot me with real bullets. He shot me in the hip and the arm. I couldn’t believe how much blood came from my body.
I was stunned. I couldn’t believe I had been so trusting and naïve. But really, haven’t we all been there?
I was going to bleed to death if nobody helped me. The kid who shot me turned and left me to die, like an injured deer on the side of the road.
I couldn’t walk. I army-crawled outside the hospital. There I saw a group of nice looking, respectable people standing in a semi-circle; they had matching t-shirts for God’s sake! I begged them to drive me to the hospital. They refused. They told me I deserved it.
I kept pulling myself along on my elbows until I came to the front of the hospital. I found Tammy M., a former colleague and boss-ass bitch in real life. I pleaded with her. I told her I knew my hip was shattered. She scooped me up and drove me to the hospital.
The nurse burst into tears when she saw my hip. My life would never be the same.
And then I woke up. And I woke up to a spouse who is outraged and livid over what women have been robbed of. And as I told him my nightmare, he helped me put the pieces together. It all bubbled up in my dreams.
