dream

The year after high school finished for me, 1982, one of my friends Scott Verity died of a heroin overdose. I was not much in contact with him by this time, and I didn't hear about his death until after the funeral. And in fact I know very little about his death at all; perhaps it wasn't heroin though it was described that way to me at the time and also suggested it was the first time he'd tried it. This was about 25 years ago, and he would have been 18 or so.

Most of my dreams I can trace back to some casual remark someone made or something I read. But in this case I have absolutely no idea at all - perhaps it'll come back to me - why I should dream that I was asked to attend a memorial service for Scott, in a special room at an airport, at which forty or fifty others attended, some of whom were vaguely familiar (one introduced himself to me as Ralph and said he now worked in the NSW Department of... but was cut off), and most who weren't. There was no-one in charge of the event, and no agitation for leadership. One of the people there wondered why it was being held at an airport (don't know what city it was) and was told that it was a place where many people could come together conveniently from various parts of the country.

Actually I have wondered whether this dream was in some way connected to this brilliant apology to the Stolen Generations which is taking place today. I can't quite see how except a lot of people are going to Canberra today to participate in a ritual commemorating a past tragedy. How Scott Verity fits in I cannot imagine however.

(Later: Now looking at the dream thing from earlier this morning I am worried it seems a bit glib, smug or glub. Not meant to be - it was very early - I was really thinking about the strangeness of the dream, and as I wrote it occurred to me a similarity with something auspicious that was happening later in the day. I was certainly not suggesting that anything in my experience or poor Scott Verity's was similar to that of the Stolen Generations'. By the way it was an incredible moment, I saw it live, in a lecture theatre of those similarly affected I think. Lovely.)