Dreams of Who Are We

 

Jesse Jackson has passed. I had no real premonition on such an event; however, the week prior to his passing I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I’d wondered how old he was as I was out for my daily run. I figured maybe 90 years old but was uncertain of his age. Funny enough there were so many things I remembered about him. I wondered why he was on my mind on my daily training runs, then as I’d gotten home from my run I forgot all about it, till I awoke the day his passing was announced. Immediately, my heart sunk; then sunk a little bit more when I’d read he was just 84 years old. I wondered where my timeline on his age was. I knew he and Andrew Young were friends and knew Martin Luther King fairly well. I also knew Andrew Young was older than Jesse Jackson.

After Jesse Jackson’s passing, I wondered how his life and legacy would positively affect our world today.  That night I had a dream about him and Malcolm X. Yes, I’ve had some profound dreams in my lifetime. Some have literally come to form after I’d dreamt of their happenings. Some dreams appear way out there, perhaps only to represent something I’d not encountered, nor happened soon after my dreaming it in any fashion. Sometimes, happening a decade later.

This dream after Jesse Jackson’s passing went like so: I was holding a blade in my mouth facing out, whilst I was treading water in a calm ocean with a large dirt cliff behind me. I faced two men, who also held a blade outward towards me in their teeth, as they treaded water with me. Apparently, it appeared we were to fight one another; however, I distanced myself from that scene by treading further towards the more open sea. I was alone initially as I’d done so. Then I felt that Jesse Jackson and Malcolm X were with me there, but I could not see them, yet felt their presence. As this occurred one of the two men from the first scene arrived. It appeared the other man, now was no longer alive. It was as if this other man had killed him. There were no words, yet there was a calm, comforting feeling I’d gotten with the feelings of having Jesse Jackson and Malcolm X present with me that never abated. I eventually awoke from the dream and felt that same calm, comforting essence that morning.

I had and have practically no clue as to what that dream was all about. I can say just months before I had quite a meaningful dream that I’d written about in September 2025. At the time, the dream I’d written about happened in August. It was about August 22^nd, 2025. The company I was working for treated the customers great, yet not always their employees. Even though after I’d had good review in May, and the two managers, one being the GM said they were interested in having me trained in November to become a manager, I smiled. I smiled and nodded as if to say, ‘Yes. I’d like that.’ When in essence it was, ‘That’s a nice idea, but I’m planning on giving two weeks’ notice in November. For I am just testing the grounds of what it feels like to work under these circumstances as your employee for a year. And November marks a year’.

Yes, the intent of my employment at that job was to learn things about the food industry, be a loyal employee, seeing if I could still take orders after not being in that position for a while. I’d closed my therapy business of 28 years about four years prior to this employment and started a writing business. I needed a rest from the remote daily grind of writing, editing, and reading as a reset. Perhaps, I’d also receive ideas from the newness of a different form of employment, which varied every day and with meeting and seeing new faces three days a week. The hours were a bit whacky, but I expected that as much. I knew one morning I’d be getting there before six in the morning and another day, I’d work well past ten at night, and sometimes past eleven in the evening.  

Everything seemed as I’d planned, until I had a quiet day at home and wrote eighteen ideas/resolves that could improve or be improved at the market I was working at. I was psyched to share my ideas. I felt they were plausible. I also knew to not overwhelm the GM or the other store managers as well with them. So, I put all the information on my phone, which during work hours would be left in my car because we employees were not allowed to have our phones with us while we were on the clock.

So, I wrote down three to four questions for myself in a pad (I carried a little note pad around with me like I had over four decades ago when I was in the Marines) for each manager when I could get the chance to point something out, as I wanted to share an idea and hear the feasibility of the ideas I’d given them. I would do that either on my lunch time, before my shift or after my shift was over, when I felt a manager would be more relaxed and not around customers.

The next day, August 25^th was a Monday, I had a normal type of shift of 10am to 5pm that day. Before I’d started I approached a manager that’d been with the company over eight years. I gave him three ideas and explained each one. He was quite receptive. Also, I pointed out a damaged seal on one of the frozen goods doors. He seemed glad I’d shown him this. I explained I had told two other managers over the last month and well, now water dripped onto the floor, and we had to keep cleaning it up and putting a ‘wet floor’ sign down for customers. All was well received.

Later about eight or so hours after that, I had the ear of two managers in the back office after I’d finished my shift and had clocked out. I pulled out my pad and had four questions to ask with ideas to better things for them, the employees and thus the customer’s experiences.  Their response upon the first two were not only inappropriate. They were unwilling to fix two areas that profoundly affected everyone. One was about having a complete labeling/tagging and the upkeep of it in the refrigeration area for the employees stocking the perishables. This was so the customers would be able to properly see the products in accordance with the labels/tags showing to the customer. The other, was how for three months that many employees, including a couple of the managers, complained to me that the platform/app that shows one’s scheduling wasn’t working many times on their phones. It depended on what they were trying to see or do on that scheduling app. That day, August 25^th, I was given an angry response by the GM about how we needed to do it on our desktops at home.  I can tell you I was stunned.

I thanked them and asked the next question and told them I had a way to resolve the labeling/tag issue. Upon letting them know that I’d figured this out on how to resolve the view and tags from the employee’s standpoint, to save time for us and gain more accuracy on loading up the back of the refrigerator with products to sell. The response by the GM was that “All those labels in the back will be gone. We won’t have any.” Again, I was stunned by her anger. Ever so gently I then asked,  “How then will you be instructing us with the labeling and proper stocking, if as you said ‘all the labels where the employee need to see where each product is to be loaded into the shelves for the customer will be removed’.” The GM and the ordering manager remained completely silent. I recognized that the issue was ‘dead in the water.’ I thanked them for their time and said, “See you tomorrow morning.”

As I got into my car that late afternoon, I realized that I needed to give two weeks’ notice. The spiritual aspect I’d enjoyed working there was gone. I’d made certain I didn’t bombard managers with multiple questions and resolves for the thoughts I’d had. Everything I had done was well thought out. And thought out on my own time off from work. Too, I’d rarely ever given ideas or had questions for the managers about any improvements to what was currently happening. I just respected what they knew to be good instruction. I felt I was being part of the team in what I’d come up with to save money, time and limit employee mistakes.

By the end of that night at home, I decided to give two weeks’ notice the next day. Two months earlier, then I’d planned to. So, I did give two weeks’ notice via email to the GM. No reason, just moving on. The GM haunted me for two days to reconsider. When asked by the GM what was my reason. I responded that it was “Spiritual in nature.” I stayed there for two weeks and then upon my last day, one of the younger twenty-something workers who had been there for about two years said, “You’ll be here again. Shopping.” I smiled and said, “I don’t think so.” She looked at me in disbelief. I have yet to return.

The other day, I reflected back on that dream the night of August 22^nd. I dreamt about calm and friendly leopards and cougars resting on my back deck and around my front stoop and walkway. They were friendly. The main point of that dream was, I had power. I had no clue what kind of power it meant then. What was I to be, or who I had been? Yet I thought it was interesting and then August 25^th arrived, the dream stayed within my mind and by mid-September I realized part of what it meant. That dream too, left me calm and comforted.

Life is not usually calm and comforting. Or at least we may not acknowledge such feelings equating that with our living, surroundings or perhaps now the disruptiveness of our current leadership in the USA. Currently, those of us who are aware of current goings on as well those of us who are empathetic may be quite unnerved. If we aren’t then who are we?---Jody-Lynn Reicher