Telluride Dreams

13 Mar Telluride Dreams

by Matthew Trail SP81 CB82 TA84

To my mild chagrin, I confess to having another dream about Telluride last night. As a long-time alum and current staffer, I probably shouldn’t be surprised that Telluride haunts some of my sleeping as well as waking hours, and I don’t begrudge the occasional encounter with some ghosts of Telluride past.

Last night’s visitation, for example, featured a diverse cast including Bill Pezick DS65 BB69 TA70, Rebecca Nutter SP83 CB84 TA88, and Laura Steele SP90 CB91 TA93, all stalwart TA members from eras past. I feel free to name names, of course, because no one can be held responsible for their actions in our dreams—including me.

Anyways, I suppose the content of the dream is less important than the emotions it elicits. The (entirely fictional) action took place on Convention (Telluride’s annual meeting) floor—a locale that has been the setting of many other Telluride dreams I’ve had.  Mr. Pezick and I got into a rather heated exchange over the impropriety of his going out for drinks the night before with some (under-age) prospective members. Strong words ensued, and even tears—a not unheard of circumstance at Telluride meetings in my day, by the way. The dream wrapped up neatly with me making peace and shaking Bill’s hand and giving an impassioned speech about how it was all okay; frank words between friends and colleagues were good, and at the end of the day we remained both.

We’re usually either heroes or victims in our dreams, and I’m not sure how much deeper meaning can be found in this one. The take-away, I guess, is that the experiences that matter in our lives stay with us, and we continue to imagine, re-imagine, and re-make ourselves in their context as the years go by. Telluride has been chock full of those experiences for me, and I am grateful.

TASP 1981 (author is behind the camera).