Had a dream last night that may apply regarding tussling with Negative Nellies in GD etc.

[MorningGlow]

Had a hell of a night last night--woke up a lot. Lots of odd dreams as well, and this one stuck out. When I went over it in my head this morning, I had the feeling it applied to what we've been discussing here about argumentative and negative people here on DU, in the media, and out in the world in general. So I thought I'd share it; all thoughts welcome, of course!

I was playing a "game" with a lot of other people. We were all sitting on two sides of a HUGE playing field--two lines facing one another. In the center of the field was a light-tan padded ball--bigger than a softball, smaller than a basketball. The goal was to nab the ball and get it to the other side. Only two players went after the ball at any given time--the rest of the people sat on the sidelines and waited for their turn. The interesting bit was that the two competitors weren't from opposite sides of the field (opposite teams), but instead were from the SAME side.

Naturally the two players who were trying to get the ball were awful to each other--pushing, nearly wrestling--and hardly ever made it to the other side because they were so busy fighting one another.

Now, I'm not aggressive by nature IRL, and I certainly didn't want to play this game, but there I was, and eventually it was my turn. I was up against a man who was way more athletic than I am, and he had that competitive glint in his eye. I knew I didn't stand a chance. But when we got the signal to start, I ran out into the middle of the field...and then DIDN'T run toward the ball. Instead, I ran to the left of it, past it. That totally confused him. He thought I was faking, so he stopped, but then ran toward where I was going instead (even though the ball was right there, clear as day).

I zig zagged for as long as it was effective, and then I ran toward the ball and grabbed it. My opponent looked more confident, as if he were thinking that NOW we were getting down to it. He ran toward me...and I stopped running. And I handed him the ball. That REALLY confused him. He stopped running too, and then handed it back to me as if it were a lit bomb in a Looney Toons cartoon. I handed it back to him. He handed it back to me. And then, when he was completely befuddled, I ran to the other side with it.

By then he wasn't angry; he ran with me but didn't try to fight me for the ball.

End of dream. And no, I did not snack on anything bizarre before bed!
:rofl:

[OneGrassRoot]

1. LOL!

My first good chuckle of the day! Thanks, MG! :)

Wish we had an animation expert to recreate this...lolol.

I'm taking away the old adage "keep your eye on the ball" with this one. ;)

:hug:

[MorningGlow]

2. I believe this is the physical version of

"baffle 'em with bullshit." ;)

But I did like the sharing part at the end.
:rofl:

[JanusAscending]

3. Could this be...........

the "inspiration" you've needed to write your novel??? ;) or had you been watching the video of Aidan beating his Daddy at the "Memory Card" game that I put up on Facebook??

[Cleita]

4. There wasn't a sacrifice of the losers after the game on top of the pyramid, was there?

:-) I think you were working out issues with the toxicity of GD and GDP. I don't think there was any insights there. I had a bad dream about filing, endless filing but I was working out job stuff, which is strange, because I hardly have to file at all, however I know it was job stuff.

[MorningGlow]

6. Oh, I think there were lots of insights

I rarely argue in GD or GDP (I save my strength for the Religion and Health forums most of the time :evilgrin:), but I thought the dream commented on the headbutting going on at DU and elsewhere in general for everyone. I liked the humorous way it suggested to deal with combative people, as well as the positive ending. I don't think the dream was as much of an "endless loop" as your filing dream, but instead had some good suggestions.

[SeattleGirl]

5. Your dream reminds me of an exercise I did once in a group

thing I was participating in.

Two people would stand together, elbows crooked and holding hands.

One person would shout something angrily, while pushing the other person's hand down.

The other person would then gently raise both hands, and say, "I acknowledge that."

After a few rounds of that, the person doing the angry shouting would start to calm down and before you knew it, both people were laughing and getting along.