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At long last my philosophical novel is complete! A journey through space, time, and dreams, Planetary Messenger explores the social, scientific, and spiritual consequences of discovering another planet in the galaxy just like our Earth. I began this project as a NaNoWriMo entry in 2007 and continued editing and revising for a year and a half.
From the back cover:
Since the dawn of humanity we have gazed at the stars to ponder our existence. To the naked eye the skies are dark and lifeless, but what if, through a glass, we looked to the heavens and saw our mirror image, a twin Earth from afar? If we found our uniqueness shattered in the vast cosmic arena, then what, if anything, could we still hold sacred?
Planetary Messenger is now available either directly from Createspace or through Amazon. Thanks to all of you who have been part of my life so far and helped make this possible. Happy reading!
I had this dream back in late October of 2004:
In the University of Minnesota astronomy TA office, I find a cool looking hat. I put it on and leave the office for band practice at my church—which is actually my old church of 4 years ago and led by a pastor who left 5 years ago.
Halfway into the first song, I catch myself falling behind tempo and having a hard time concentrating. No problem, I just put some extra mental energy into it. The problem persists, though, and I start feeling a bit drowsy and lightheaded. One of my drumsticks falls out of my hand as my vision fades slightly. I manage to finish the song single-handed before falling off the drum throne and passing out on the floor. Eventually I return to the TA office where a graduate student informs me that the hat is a “tequila mist hat”, which surrounds the wearer with a fine mist of tequila, causing a slow and steady intoxication.
Shortly after I dreamt this, a good friend volunteered his interpretation:
I thought maybe it was a comparison of your astronomy hat to your drumming hat where you felt like you were inadequate at something in astronomy. However, now I’d suggest that another possibility is that maybe you’re feeling a little conflict between your musical self and your scientist self.
I wasn’t too sold on his analysis back in 2004, but now I think there’s some truth to it. I’ll never give up science or music, and I’m doing my best scheming to simultaneously pursue both professionally.
This morning I remembered two or three of my dreams, but I made a conscious decision while waking up not to record them in my dream journal. I’ve done this a few times before, too, usually when I don’t ever want to reread the dream. By doing so, though, my written record becomes less representative of my dreams as a whole.
I used to forget my dreams all the time, but now when I lose a significant one it’s almost like a memory fading away.
And as one realizes…
that one is a dream figure…
in another person’s dream,
that is self-awareness.
You haven’t met yourself yet.
But the advantage to meeting others in the meantime…
is that one of them may present you to yourself.
From the film Waking Life
Last night I dreamt that Mccauley Culkin was kidnapped from Buckingham Palace and taken into an unmarked vehicle at shotgun-point.
The dream itself was rather bizzare, but what struck me in particular was that I was not any of the dream characters. All the dreams in my journal involve me as either a main character or bystander, providing a place from which I can observe or participate in the events. In this dream, however, I was nowhere to be found; instead my perspective in this dream followed various characters the style of a literary narrator. For example, although I followed Mccauley Culkin throughout most of the dream until he was forced into the vehicle, afterward I saw the car drive away, unable to guess at the fate of our hero.
A dream where I am not a character is an interesting experience.
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