9.22.2008

Unibrowsing

I've told this story to a few of my friends. But I will tell it again, and make some witty connection to a deeper meaning or something.

Last year I roomed with a great person named Daniel Coutz. We would share all of our deepest thoughts with each others.

We shared our likes and dislikes, our dreams and disappointments. And we shared our fears.

Daniel doesn't like mullets.

I don't like unibrows.

Daniel has been afraid that he will wake up with a mullet someday, somehow letting it happen without even realizing it.

I have been afraid of waking up with a unibrow with the same thing happening.

Last Sunday night at this time I was in the PSU trying to sleep because of the power outage. I didn't get to sleep. But at 6:00 am they let us go back to our real beds. I slept for a while. But I dreamed as well.

I dreamed a terrible dream.

In my dream, it was dark in the apartment--because of the power outage--and I walked into the bathroom. I looked in the dark mirror and saw something hideous on my face. It was a unibrow! But it wasn't just any unibrow. It was a unibrow that went from the top of my forehead to the tip of my nose.

It was gross.

So in my dream, I was so disgusted, so I reached for my shaver...

...my electric shaver...

...that needed charged.

Then that was the end of the dream.

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But really, it is interesting to me that my weird, unreasonable fear would cause me to have a dream such as this, at the one time when I can't make it all better by shaving it off.

Why do dreams take advantage of our fears? I have always been afraid of heights, so I always have dreams were I am falling to my most probable death.

See as long as I am in control of my height, I can make it. I can clutch a guardrail or just not go on the roof in the first place.

But once I am falling, I've lost control. There's nothing I can do about it.

Once the electric has gone out and I can't shave my unibrow, I've lost control. There's nothing I can do about it.

I guess the big question is:

Could the biggest fear I have had, be the fear of losing control?

9 comments:

Daniel Coutz said...

Yeah I knew you had and I've been in the process of commenting a few times and then I am distracted (it doesn't help I am usually at work)

I am pretty good about clutching guard rails too (in the metaphorical sense). Letting go is a scary thing.

jenesis torralba said...

you could always borrow someone else's electric shaver.

or shaving cream and a razor would probably work just as well.

also, i think my uncle once nair'd his unibrow. he said it was quite efficient.

Bennett said...

In the dream world, none of those things come to mind.

Anonymous said...

I promise to let you know if you ever start showing the beginnings of the unibrow to end all unibrows.

Ryan Schmitz said...

Hey man sorry I didn't talk with you more around the moveon.org guys, but here is the website that I was referencing:

http://obamamessiah.blogspot.com/

Robert said...

Really good thoughts, my friend.

Letting go is a VERY scary thing.

Such is life... said...

quite profound..

in a very interesting way.
i know exactly how u feel.

John D. said...

Bennett, this has jogged my memory and inspired me to write about a dream I had years ago.
Thank you.

J.S. said...

do any of us have any real control over anything? i think we may be disciplined but discipline and control are two different things. have you come up with a solid answer to your proposed question?
i love you, bennett s. briles.