Dream Log: Difficulties in Communication on a University Campus

 Last night, as I have many times before, I dreamed I was wandering across a university campus. 

In this dream, I was trying to find my way somewhere. Where, wasn't exactly clear. Maybe back home, maybe to someone else's home, maybe just to somewhere familiar, where I had my bearings again. I was about to say that the university looked unrealistic. But I haven't spent much time on university campuses lately, so for all I know, many of them may have come to look this way, with most of the buildings glass-walled, 

 

with much space devoted to huge indoor lounges where students energetically socialized. I walked and walked, in and out of the buildings. Repeatedly I got too cold, then comfortable again, because, in real life, I was slipping out from underneath the covers, and then getting under them again.

Although I was lost, and there were throngs of students all around, I didn't ask anyone for directions. In fact, I didn't speak at all. I was concerned that my absolute muteness might make me seem even more strange to these young people than I already did. But I worried that if I said something, I might make things even worse. And I was finding it very hard to get a feel for how these young people thought. I was worried that they might be somewhat right-wing. I was worried that they might not wish me well.

At one end of one of these glass-walled buildings, a bank of monitors and consoles rose well over ten feet high. I couldn't figure out how to work any of it. And I looked at the videos playing silently on the many monitors, looking for a clue to the students' orientation, and/or the orientation of other people who might be trying to shape their minds. I couldn't tell whether there were ports somewhere, where the students could pay, or scan their ID's, for greater levels of access. 

After a while I turned away from this wall, about as clueless as when I had gotten there.

I saw that PC's were wired to tables throughout the building. There didn't seem to be any charge or ID verification to use them. I was almost broke, and didn't want to spend money on a computer session which I might soon need very badly for a sandwich. 

I sat at a table next to a PC and fumbled through some videos, uncomprehending. A cheerful-seeming young man leaned over me and pressed the lower Left hand corner of the screen of the computer I was using, several times. It seemed to work like changing channels on a TV. 

My first reaction was anger, taking the young man's action as aggressive and/or disrespectful. But then I noticed that I was suddenly much better able to understand the video content on my PC, and that it was politically progressive. I nodded in silent thanks to the young man. He certainly seemed to be progressive, and perhaps he wasn't alone in that. I suddenly felt much safer. I felt on the verge of speaking, and explaining my situation. It was around then that I woke up.