“Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company,” counseled Mark Twain. I’ve quoted this more than once in front of church audiences, when I have judged them genial enough to take it in good heart, or in need of genial-izing. It’s an example of the type of one-liner Mark Twain called a “snapper”, or sometimes an “astonisher”. It was his practice never to leave a lecture platform without committing one at the very end, and often it brought the house down.
When we are sharing dreams by my Lightning Dreamwork process, the last step is to come up with a snapper, a personal catch-phrase that captures the essence of the dream and the insights that have come through in discussion. This is a neat way to retain a message and it orients us to do something about it.
Once when I was leading a weekend Active Dreaming playshop at a ranch in the Texas hill country, a woman in the group approached me for guidance on her marriage. “Ask your dreams for guidance tonight,” I told her, “and bring me a dream in the morning.” This she did.
In her dream, as she told it before Sunday breakfast, she was in her favorite Mexican restaurant. She was waiting for takeout, and had already paid for her meal. People kept coming and going, picking up their orders, while she stood at the counter. A “cute guy” came in, collected his food, and winked at her as he left. Later, another “cute guy” – a musician – picked up his meal and paused to murmur in her ear, as he headed for the door, “You know, this place sucks.” At the end of the dream, the dreamer was still waiting.
We did our Lightning Dreamwork process. When I asked the dreamer how she felt on waking, she said, “hungry and frustrated.” Reality check? Well, it was unlikely that the people in her favorite restaurant would treat her like that, but the situation felt familiar in a more important sense. The heart of our conversation was to make the link between the dream and the intention, which she had recorded simply as: I would like guidance on my marriage.
If it were my dream, I suggested, I would notice that I’m in a place where things look good, but I’m not being fed. She thought about this and came up with the following snapper: I am in a place where I’ll never be fed or nourished, even though I’ve paid up front.
Dreams require action. Her action plan? “I’m going to call a divorce attorney on Monday.” The follow-up? A year later, the dreamer wrote to me to report that she was now happily remarried to a “cute musician” who strongly resembles the guy who spoke to her in the sad cafe.
Come up with the right snapper, and it may lead you to the right snap decision.
For the rules of the Lightning Dreamwork game, please read my book The Three “Only” Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination (New World Library)
Illustration from The Unabridged Mark Twain, edited by Dave Thompson (Running Press)
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