Redwall, Bonhoeffer, and one awesome dream.

I had an awesome dream a few nights ago. Before I’d gone to work, I was paging through a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while* [see end of post for more info on the asterisked portions] and it mentioned another theological topic.** I remembered I once owned the book it cited*** and I wasn’t sure if I still had it (I thought I may have sold it). But then I had to leave for work so I wasn’t able to look for it. I got home very late and fell asleep pretty promptly (I am an expert at sleeping).

I then had the most wonderful dream in which I was desperately searching for the book that was cited in the other because I NEEDED it because… well, you know, books. I think there was some other desperate reason I needed to find it, but during the dream I felt the primary motivation was because I wanted to read it and I was really hoping I hadn’t sold it. I knew where to find it but I didn’t spot it. However, I did find a boxed set of the “Martin” storyline of Redwall books (if you don’t know them, you should–they’re wholesome, awesome, fascinating reads for young adults/children). These books were not actual Redwall books, though. They had titles like “King” and “Kingmaker” and “Mariel the Queen” [the last is most similar to an actual title]. They were in a gorgeous box set and they all featured art which looked like Redwall but they had a gold foil over them. Their spines combined to make a beautiful panoramic of Redwall Abbey and the surrounding forest.

But most importantly of all, there was a Redwall book titled “Bonhoeffer.” Yes, my subconscious concocted such a delightful fantasy as a Redwall novel in which one of the characters was a mouse styled after Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the wonderful German theologian who was executed by the Nazis for his opposition to Hitler. Oh yes! I can’t help but desire to flesh out his story more. Perhaps there was this little field mouse who stood up against the evil Wolf named Lupis Hitlerus or something like that. The Bonhoeffer mouse would have glasses like the man himself did, two circles, and he would look very German (or as German as a mouse can look). Lupis would be viciously persecuting red squirrels because he didn’t like how they looked. Bonhoeffer-mouse would defeat the Wolf in his own self-sacrificing death by inspiring others (probably badgers shouting “EULALIA!”) to come to whatever land he lived in and save the squirrels. Can you say EPIC FAN FICTION? I can.

As my wife noted, Bonhoeffer’s name could be “Bonhopper” and he could be a hare. However, my subconscious made him a mouse, and that is what I would envision him in Brian Jacques’ world. Though the name Bonhopper would be pretty fun…

Anyway, I did wake up and immediately pulled over a step stool to find the book that had been cited. So not only was the dream amazing, but I also actually did have the book! Fantastic!

What’s the strangest combination your subconscious has come up with for a dream?

*Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics: Law & Gospel & the Means of Grace by David P. Scaer

**The Third Use of the Law

***Law, Life, and the Living God: The Third Use of Law in Modern American Lutheranism by Scott Murray

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