After reading Anaglyph’s post on his recurring dream, I started thinking. Not for long, because it hurts. But I felt like I too had dreamed recurring dreams. But I couldn’t remember any and after a while, dismissed it.

I remembered last night at about 3 am. I was standing at the top of a staircase. From the top of the stairs, I could see the entry hall and the front door. And as I stood there, the front door burst open in an explosion of kindling. Three men poured through with two others behind them. As is often the case with dreams, I didn’t know the men, but I knew their intent. They were in the house to harm my family. I picked up a folding chair (from where I don’t know) and tried to throw it at the intruders. It went about 4.7 inches. I didn’t even have the strength to send it tumbling down the stairs. So I ran down to confront them. I picked up a baseball bat at the landing and started to swing as a leapt down the last seven or eight stairs. I connected. The intruder turned his head and looked at me as if to say, “Hmm. That kind of tickled.” So I started punching. With everything I had, I swung my fists. Apparently, everything I have isn’t very much. I barely had the strength to make contact with the intruder’s face. And then I woke up.

This isn’t so much a recurring dream as a recurring dream theme. Every once in a while I’ll have these dreams, where I’m trying to protect someone or something and lack the ability to stop my opponents. Sometimes I just don’t have the strength. Sometimes they’re just incredible in their tolerance for pain. In one dream, I was trying to knock this one guy out so that I could go warn someone of their impending doom. I slammed his head on the floor for a good five minutes with no results. He just stared at me.

I’ve never been in a real, knockdown, drag out, no-holds-barred fight. Sometimes I want to find one.