Riddles

Last night before bed I asked my brain elves (my nickname for my subconscious) if there was anything they wanted me to keep in mind over the next ten days or so. I have been feeling overwhelmed, disoriented, not sure how to prioritize, not sure which paths to try to forge or follow. I made my best shot at a ten day plan with my conscious brain and then asked for some input.

This morning I had a dream that there was a small group of students preparing to take a test, but they were preparing so late. They weren’t familiar with the conventions of the test, with what the test-makers wanted to gauge, or how to play along with the testing ruse so that the test-makers could feel successful.

I was meant to coach them, but I wasn’t doing a very good job.

I said to my guide, “These students rather hate me.”

She said, “They might not if you offer them something.”

Her confidence that it was possible to evolve the relationship gave me some energy.

The test was full of little logic puzzles. Little IF/THEN statements we had to play out to their correct conclusions.

I told the students that the questions would be full of information meant to distract, and that it was their job to notice the big clue, and keep track of the big clue, to follow it all the way through.

I told them they could think of the IF clauses like nouns: people. places. I said they could think of the THEN statements as verbs: ways of being. I said it was their job to match them up well.

I wanted to tell them about riddles, about how in riddles there are overlapping conceptual domains. And the riddle-teller does their best to activate one frame only, and it’s your job to notice the overlapping frame, and to navigate to the answer in THAT realm.

I was unsure if the students would learn quickly enough to pass the test, or if the test even mattered.

I woke up thinking about how this might be why, in stories, riddles so often come at the thresholds of realms. It’s a little wink. It’s a little wisdom about what it takes to cross into the next realm. You have to notice it’s there.