Skunk Dreams by Louise Erdrich

In general, I loved Louise's writing style and admire how she uses metaphors and detailed descriptions to express her encounters with skunks and wildlife. Also, I thought that she brought up some good questions that I've been struggling with. First, she brought up a quote by David H. Lund that asks the question of what reality is. He says that in a dream reality is the image made that one's unconscious is living and that you perceive the dream world as being real. Then she brings up the idea of how this could constitute reason for there being an afterlife, because one's (unconscious) self might be able to 'live' on after the conscious self (what our brain perceives as ourselves as were are alive) dies. My personal opinion on this topic is that our conscious selves (brains) cannot perceive their own demise (you cannot perceive not perceiving) so our mind needs an excuse for living on, which ends in theories of the after-life, reincarnation, and the list goes on. The next interesting topic that Ms. Erdrich brings up is that of the phenomena of Déjà vu. She tells a story about how she dreamed of a herd of elk and then ran into the same herd in real life. I have been struggling with this phenomena as well because I have had multiple occurrence where I would dream of being in a situation (or at least thought I did) and then ran right into the situation days, weeks or months later. Some experts say that these dreams stimulate our unconscious to guide us towards making them 'real' in our conscious lives and this is what has tended to make the most sense for me. The problem is that no one can control their unconscious (as many hypnotist around the world show). Another interesting question that she quoted from British psychotherapist Adam Phillips is the question of "whether obstacles create desire or desire creates obstacle". Personally, I believe that it's both, because in some situations obstacles make one want to work for something, while in other situations one wants something and because of this obstacles are created along the path to achieve that goal. A good example would be becoming an Olympian: I could just go to swim practice and do my normal routine and end up as an Olympian by fate or I could strive to become an Olympian and put in extra effort, meeting obstacles such as time constraints on practicing. Finally, one of my favorite parts of this essay is when Louise states that "the obstacles that we overcome define us." This is a wonderful statement of life in general, which I interpreted that our conscious actions and experiences define what our life is and has been and is going to be and who we are or are perceived to be.