The Commandment Dream

From Daughter Number One

I had a dream last night.  In the dream I was someone who resented and didn’t understand commandments.  The stated purpose of the dream was to teach me why the commandments were necessary.

The first part of the dream seemed almost like scripture, like I was reading a few verses from a familiar source. When I woke up, it took me a bit to realize that this story wasn’t actually in the Book of Mormon. I don’t remember the verses exactly, but I’m going to write the first part in that sort of style so you get the picture: (note that the only part of reading the verses I actually remember was that the word ‘sidekick’ was definitely in there)

“And it came to pass that there was a large and mighty man, yea, and he was strong even in the Lord,

“And he took a crew filled with mighty men, even after the strength of the Lord, and they did sail upon the great waters, and did pursue the wicked who did travel upon the waters, and they did come upon them, and slay them.

“And this they did do for many years.

“And now, behold, it came to pass, that the man began to wax old in years, and behold, he was filled with an evil spirit which did possess him, yea, and it did seek to drag him down, even unto the depths of the sea.

“And the sidekick of the man sorrowed in his heart, because of the evil spirit which did possess his master.

“And behold, he was called Right Anchor; for behold, in his many years at sea he had lost even his left hand:

“And it came to pass that Right Anchor did come upon his master, and did free him from that evil spirit which possessed him, and did allow him to find peace with his Father which was in heaven.”

I couldn’t get the end quite right. In the verses, it made it sound more like Right Anchor killed him (but he didn’t!).

Then, after reading the verses, I saw sort a vision of what happened towards the end of the captain’s life.

He went sea-mad. He felt like he had to be in the ocean at any cost necessary, including his life.

Obviously that’s not a good quality to have in a captain, so his capable mate took over and decided that the captain needed to be grounded.

When he took the captain ashore, however, the captain couldn’t handle being so far from his beloved sea and started running crazily for the sea, without regard for mate, crew, or himself. He was willing to injure anything and anyone that would get in his way.  Right Anchor decided that perhaps the best course of action would be to tether the captain to something stable.

While he was tethering him, the dream paused, and I heard the voice of the Narrator, asking –

“The captain cannot be in the sea. It will bring him nothing but death and misery. How long of a tether should Right Anchor allow him?”

Then I saw two options. The first was a long tether that allowed the captain to reach the edge of the water. As soon as he was released, with nothing but the tether to tie him to land, he ran forward for the ocean – and as soon as the rope around his foot pulled him to a stop he chose to fall forward into the water, and drowned.

The Narrator spoke, saying

“The tether that allowed him to reach what he wanted so desperately allowed him to lose himself. This is not the correct path.”

Then I saw the second of the two options; in which Right Anchor made the tether so short that the captain was almost out of sight of the sea.

The Narrator spoke again

“This is correct.”

Then I woke up.