Hanging by a thread with Wile E. Coyote

In my dream, I’m hanging perilously out over the ledge of a rocky cliff. The wind is blowing. My arms ache but I don’t dare let go. I’m hanging onto the cliff by the slimmest of margins.

I could fall at any moment. It’s the classic scenario. Will I hold on? Or, will I fall to the ground below?

Unlike Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the speedy Road Runner in the Looney Tunes cartoons, I won’t be able to pick up my battered body and live to fight another day.

I’ll be splattered pebbles across the road.

I’ve been having this same dream. It’s on repeat, like a spam text that keeps showing up in my inbox. “You have an unpaid toll charge. Please pay the remaining $75 now.”

Still, the dream keeps returning. I’m close to falling. I have beads of sweat soaking into my eyes, but I don’t dare wipe my face. I need to focus on holding on.

Sometimes when I have the dream, I hear Kenny Chesney’s song, You Save Me in the background.

“Every now and then I get a little lost,
My strings all get tangled, my wires all get crossed,
Every now and then I’m right up on the edge,
Dangling my toes out over the ledge,
I just thank God you’re here.

Cause when I’m a bullet shot out of a gun,
Cause when I’m a firecracker coming undone,
Or when I’m a fugitive ready to run, all wild-eyed and crazy,
No matter where my reckless soul takes me
Baby you save me.”

I keep trying to figure out what’s bringing on the nightmare. Some of it is news. Some of it is the ups and downs of life. Like Wile E. Coyote, my dream has elaborate contraptions and traps, purchased from the fictional Acme Corporation, to keep me from falling. Wile E. and I must shop at the same places.

Of course, I wake up before the dream ever comes to a conclusion. I think that’s a good thing, but it’s still a strange feeling.

I think I’d much prefer the dream where I’m running naked in front of everyone. At least then I’d have a chance of outrunning a few people.

Yikes!