Mood:
coolTopic: "October Dreamin'" (4)
Frodo will tell you that Autumn carries a sense of foreboding. Despite his stated belief that the first cold wind blowing from the North carries the clash of life with death, he cannot help but marvel at the collage which Gauguin, on his best day, could not rival. Without warning, the greens soon become a touch of yellow, or a streak of orange, followed by the occasional crimson sword. Together, the chemical mixture manifested in deciduous leaves stops hearts, and brings Frodo to his knees.
Old friends often share ancient secrets when re-united after inexplicable absences. Such was the case when Frodo attended old friends at the College of the Shire. While halfway listening to multiple conversations, Frodo heard someone talk about the dreams that have plagued them for so many years, all emanating from their classroom days. Frodo immediately verbally interjected in order to introduce his recurring nightmare about just falling short of the number of credit-hours required in order to graduate, forty years after the fact. In truth, Frodo never had such a problem, but he has "dreamed" of this for year-after-year.
Hearing from nearly all of his old friends about similar dreams, Frodo has come to the conclusion that trauma, in whatever format, defines the nature of our life experiences far beyond our successes. Perhaps that is why we prefer the colors of Autumn to the blossomings of Spring. We remember where we were when we heard that someone died, but are unable to remember birthdays or anniversaries. Life is, indeed, marked in different ways.
Frodo's earliest rememberance was the surreptitious observation of his parents placing presents under a tree, then telling him that "Santa Claus" had brought them. That trauma, in the dead of Winter, hangs heavy upon the subconscious of the Hobbit. The Hobbit is grateful that hibernation exists for other mammalians, for he has no interest in dreams without end. If he had an option, Frodo would choose to dream that he had accumulated all of his required credits before the leaves fell. He couldn't imagine failing to graduate because of that crummy grade in Statistics.
