I always feel that my dreams are a realm which are impervious to the vagaries of daily life. Riding on my wings of desire they are boundless. They take me to wonderland whenever I want and encourage me like no one I know.
One fine day I stumbled upon the word "dream catcher". What a strange word ...both abstract and absurd. It wasn't the first time I heard it but somehow that day it sounded particularly ominous and menacing. It was a terrible thought, as if some monster had clipped my wings of desire. Preposterous! I told myself when I tried to gauge the physical concept of trapping boundless dreams. I started feeling better. I was curious to find its exact connotation, nevertheless.
The word originates from the Ojibwa (Chippwa) culture (which is basically the largest group of native American tribes). It is a handmade object based on a willow hoop on which is woven a loose net or web, and then decorated with personal and sacred items like feathers and beads. It is used to protect sleeping children from nightmares. The Ojibwas believe that bad dreams stay in the net and disappear in the light of the day. The good ones filter through. Aha! I thought...then why do they call it a dream catcher, they should rename it to nightmare catcher or something like that! This description appealed to me though. My dreams were safe and sound now. And in my opinion if nightmares had wings, they should be clipped off as soon as possible.
According to another interesting folklore "dream catcher" was an inanimate form of the word "spider". Spider webs were actually hung from the hoop of a child's cradle board. Now that is ominous and menacing surely!
Picture credits : A painting by Joanne Bird. Plz visit http://www.joannebird.com/
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