Last night in my dream, I found myself sitting in a classroom. I was there with several other people taking a course in grief. This was no ordinary class on the theory of grief. We had each volunteered to experience the passing of a loved one so that we could learn what grief was like. We were coming back to report on our experience so far. The instructor sitting up front looked at us and said: “It looks like many of you have chosen to lose weight.” That’s good. People had decided to get healthier and were eating better and exercising. Then he looked at me and said: “What have you lost and what have you gained?” I said: “Well, I haven’t lost weight, and I don’t want to lose weight. I have gained compassion. I have a better understanding of what other people are going through. And I have gained a belief in the idea that we are eternal spirits and that we go on after “death”. I know that in my very being now. But, I have also gained deep, sustained unbearable sadness.“ Then I wept. People came up to comfort me.
Then I woke up.
