The Tale of the Shining Shoes

I am susceptible to experiencing dreams of events which occurred years ago. Like, recently, I dreamt of days when I was in primary school and a member of my school’s Representative Council of Learners (RCL). It’s been over ten years since I completed primary school, hence experiencing a dream relating to primary school days was, naturally, a bit unanticipated. Nonetheless, this dream demanded that I decipher and take home its message, which, to my benefit, I did so submissively. Because had I not done so, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to write this piece, and the writer’s block which I had been experiencing up until now, would’ve simply continued subjugating my oh-so-amateur writing ability. Oh, the struggle! (Hand-over-face emoji inserted).

Anyway, back to the dream. Upon waking up, I recalled that the focal theme of this dream was not really my primary school days, but me being a member student of the RCL committee, which FYI, I actually was (insert the meh emoji from the Emoji Movie to camouflage the euphoria which some may misconceive as unnecessary conceitedness). I further recalled that during the daily morning meet-up of the RCL committee, and after hearing (not listening) to the day’s dose of pep talk from our mentor, we were asked to line-up for an inspection conducted daily by the head boy, through which we would score merits if and when our uniforms were creaseless and our shoes shiny enough to be able to catch a glimpse of one’s reflection in it.

(P.S. Shiny shoes = an informal replacement for a mirror to admire yourself while farthest away from one of the greatest human inventions, i.e. a mirror. (This is the point where you judge a guy for purportedly overusing a mirror to admire himself)).

So, the message of the dream which I successfully deciphered and interpreted is the following: as members of the RCL committee, we would receive merits for our outer appearance, i.e. our uniform and shoes, whilst our inner abilities, for example, our ability to act as role models for junior students, our behaviour, character, etc. played a minimal role, if any role whatsoever in scoring merits. This reminded me of the situation in the ‘real world’ where people will tend to judge you based on your outer appearance, whilst the inner you, the real you, will play a role of negligible value. It’s certainly not an ideal model to adhere to, but, unfortunately, it remains a model that stands unshakably strong even today. And the sooner we understand this, the quicker we can prepare to distance ourselves from pain, heartbreak and disappointment which are inexorable qualities of a model worthy of being characterised as repugnant, contemptible and ignominious.

(Featured Image: Nik MacMillan on Unsplash)

Mohammed Arai