i feel good about myself when i wear my Che Guevara t-shirt

As far as I know, I've only had one repeated dream in my life. I had it a few times when I was a young child, and have never had it since. It is extremely haunting, I know the description will not do it justice. I was mired in pitch darkness. As is common in dreams, I knew exactly what was happening in the situation even though it had not been explained to me. I was playing a game of tag, and was not it. There was only one other player. I could not see this player, but I could sense it. It was not human, but some sort of dark mass, maybe human, maybe animal, mostly just inky void. I did not want to be caught, but was running as fast as I could directly toward it. It, in turn, was running as fast as it could directly at me. There was fear that I still feel today; ultimate, horrible fear.

I've been reading recently about the development of the self. Many theorists argue that the self is an internalization of the values of others who we value. We internalize these values because we feel that living up to them will offer the protection from harm and anxiety that comes with being acceptable to those more powerful than ourselves. The process starts with our parents, but when we realize that even they cannot save us from death, we turn to larger society - government, religion, culture.

As I grew older, as I learned to love God and fear being different, the dream went away.