Barney+the+Man-Eating+Freak+and+Under+Priced+Stuff

Micha K.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     7A English 5/12/08                                                                                         **Barney the Man-Eating Freak and Under Priced Stuff** Journal #1, Ch. 1-6 of __The Giver__

I remember one dream I had several years ago. I was in my ranch house room when I heard a noise outside. There was a woman with ragged clothes in the hall. I ran to her and she said a big monster slashed her neck. She said he went into the basement. I went downstairs to find this beast. I was down there for a while, when I heard the creature and I dashed back upstairs. I noticed that where the woman was, only a green plastic teacup and a note remained in that spot. The note said, “Beware of Barney, he’s behind you.” I ran to my room, where my brothers were waiting for me. We slammed the door shut and leaned against it, so the purple mugger and his gang of cows couldn’t intrude into my room. Sam and Judah told me that I was only dreaming, so I pinched myself. I woke up happily, because I was dreaming. In my pajamas, I walked into the hallway and Barney ate me, since I was still dreaming. One of the most important things I have learned from this dream is that we aren’t protected from danger like Jonas is in the Lois Lowry’s The Giver. We have to be aware of danger since we don’t live in a protected community that enforces equality, and I am lucky to be protected the way I am in today’s society. However, danger is not the only thing about which people dream. A couple weeks ago, I had a dream that I was extremely bored one afternoon. I had nothing to do, since I had watched all of the DVDs my family owns a bazillion times. Luckily, a miracle happened. A man from the company called Under Priced Stuff, also known as UPS, asked me “What can Brown do for you?” I simply responded by commanding the deliveryman, “Brown can get me every movie that I like for 100% off each item.”  Considering the company is called Under Priced Stuff, the man came back quicker than you can name every movie made by Steven Spielberg and Mel Brooks, with jillions of truckloads of movies that I asked for. Not only were all the mvies free, but I never watched a single movie more than once for the rest of my life. The most obvious lesson I can learn from this very unrealistic dream is that you can’t always get what you want and should be happy with what you have. There are others that are less fortunate than you and you should never whine about not having enough of something. I may not have nice things like other people, and I might think I don’t have enough, but I realize how fortunate I am to possess what I own. Through these strange dreams that I had, I have learned a lot about my own life, and will continue to learn from my dreams for a long time.