My Dream of Being a King

I had a dream, just now, in my hot dry room where the humidity evaporated because of the heaters.

I was a series of kings, first the son, and then his father. We were in canada, somewhere, and we had a fort and people to protect, and Indians to fight against. I think we had guns, but also swords, and my army had a medeival-ish look, I think. We were camped out in front of what I believe was the enemy settlment, and the father was readying his troops for battle. As the son I wandered into enemy territory and took back my woman. It was a stroke of genius and there was no massive battle. But I heard rumours that maybe I'd killed off the entire enemy army by myself. I say army because I'm not exactly sure what we were fighting against, and one of the characters later was an indian, and we treated him like an enemy...

As the father I marched home with my troops. They debated and complained, but I was resolute and firm. I explained to those soldiers who asked what I thought. Interestingly, I had some kind of a wife, and she was running further along with the army up front. The father was a strong man, a decisive and wise person, and he claimed that he was not very smart. The son was very smart, however, and both were righteous and different from what you'd expect. Both seemed to believe in something similar to world peace, and both were against fighting. I played the son as were just across the river from our home base. There was an Indian on the ice, he was holding something. My men made a fuss of it, but I did not.  Our scout told us that he had given us a drum, (although it seemed rolled up into a manuscript) and while we were talking, me and the scout, one of my men tried to shoot the man on the ice.

He failed, and I chastised, or he succeeded, killing the man, I immediately rushed out onto the water to tend to the man, and warriors came forth from the forest. I picked up the body with the intention of making amends, and the warriors rushed towards me. If the soldier didn't shoot the man on the Ice, then our army started to cross the ice not far from where the Indian was, and we returned home. While the soldiers passed to my right, we sat on the ice, the Indian man and I. We could not speak the same language, but I tried to be friendly. I tried telling him that he would have to learn our language to survive. He would have to understand our culture, or we would annihilate them. I realize that must have sounded like a threat. One of my men spat on the man. I halted the line and chastise him, and I thought that I wanted to change the way this army works. (Then I dreamt the scenario where one of my soldiers kills the man) and the scene went back to speaking with the  Indian, only this time it was not a warning, but basic communication. I tried to get him to understand me. He could not.

My rank then dropped. I asked Britain to remove some of my soldiers, as they were not useful. I tried to demilitarize my army, and establish a contact with the natives. I was still trying to avoid confrontations like the ones in history. Just now, I'm thinking that I would have done well to write down my initial intentions lest I begin to see them in a new light after being next to them for so long. I think that If the First Nations had spoken english from the get-go, they would have been equals.

This dream explains how difficult keeping to peace must have been. Even as a king, I am still doubted by my followers. The roots to this racism run deep, and it was a miracle that I didn't think the same  way after living with people that though like that. I also realized that the cultural barrier was so great that speaking of complicated things like culture was far down the list of priorities, even if I did want to talk about it. And then there are the misconceptions of different cultures about the other, fears and beliefs, and the difficulty of overcoming them. I can see that it was easier to think the First Nations were inferior, and that they should be enlightened. It gives me insight on the why's that I asked for but could not receive an answer to. I am thankful for this dream, and regret any part that I may have forgotten by the time I sat down to write about it.