I know I’m awake because I feel the cool air on my arm hairs.
I know I’m awake because the far-off branches of trees are blurry.
Being awake is a much richer tactile experience. The emotions may be matched or even surpassed in dreams, but not the subtlety of sensations. There may be an intense detail in a dream but awake reveals a panorama of intense details.
So I know I’m awake.
Some things don’t quite fit though:
Donald Trump elected President? Doesn’t seem real.
The sound quality of phones being much worse than the land lines of 30 years ago? Unlikely.
Witnessing the extinction of elephants, Rhinos and song birds and bees? Dreamlike.
Half of what physicists and astronomers come up with? Doesn’t make sense.
The larger, more abstract circumstances of my life imploding? Sounds made up.
So, maybe I’m awake in a sleeping world. Awake inside a dream.
I could be out of sync with the world; when I fall asleep, the world wakes.
That’s called insanity.
Am I Awake? A music video:
This is my 2007 thesis for Lesley University's Masters of Education in Curriculum Design, focusing in Conflict Resolution and Peaceable Schools:
Daisybrain 