Tag: superstitions

Secret Subject Swap — Mike Rowe, Come Clean My Dreamcatcher

Secret Subject Swap — Mike Rowe, Come Clean My Dreamcatcher

Posted on by Mama

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This week, 16 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My Secret Subject is:
Every so often a dreamcatcher must be emptied of the nightmares it catches.  Who does it and why?

It was submitted by: www.someoneelsesgenius.com

Hmm. . . this is a tough one. Mainly because I haven’t a clue when it comes to my dreamcatcher etiquette. While I am familiar with the design and basic concept of this legend, I had no idea that one said catcher ever got full or needed to be emptied. Sounds like a dirty job to me — we might want to call in Mike Rowe for this one.

The reason behind my dreamcatcher naiveness is probably that I’ve never given it much thought because I’m not a big believer in superstitions. Okay, so I eat black-eyed peas on new year’s day,  but that’s because I love those little beans and I like forcing the rest of my family to eat just one “tastes like dirt” pea (my husbands words, not mine) once a year.  

Now don’t get me wrong, I love all the stories, history and interesting ideas behind many of the superstitions, some of which are almost as old as time. I find it amusing to see how these mysterious beliefs have been handed down through the ages and how they make perfectly logical people act in silly, serious, irrational or even reverent ways. Don’t you dare spill a speck of salt in front of my husband and not expect him to toss a few grains over his shoulder. As for me, if I thought about the repercussions of every ladder I walked under, umbrella I opened indoors or black cat that crossed my path, I think I would worry myself sick.

So let’s get back to dreamcatchers. Since my knowledge of this Native American legend was so limited, I decided to do a bit of research and found an article at Lifescript.com titled “The Truth About Dreamcatchers,” so it must be accurate. Right? A dreamcatcher is made from a wooden circle and some type of “string” woven to resemble a spider’s web. Apparently there is significance in how the threads are woven, and there definitely needs to be a hole in the center of the webbing.

The legend states that if you hang a dreamcatcher over your bed while you sleep, the good dreams will go through the hole in the middle while the nightmares become ensnared in the webbing. I have no idea what happens to those so-so ones that are just epic day-in-the-life head movies that go on and on but never end. . . But I digress.

So this is where it gets really interesting. According to “The Truth About Dreamcatchers,” when the sun comes out in the morning, all the captured nightmares just evaporate. Evaporate? Well, this indeed is good news for me, because now I no longer need to employ someone to kick my nightmares to the curb (or cart them off to the recycling station) and yes, Mike Rowe, you’re off the hook.

*****

If you want to read more of the fun, here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there: