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DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES…We’ve had a great run of late-season weather, but it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Ahh Christmas…Right around now is when the holiday deadline pressure starts compressing the diaphragm. Just about the time we should all begin feeling light and merry, like it says in those cute carols, we lumber the oxen-march of the overburdened.

Emotional times like the holiday season tend to short-circuit some folks’ internal hardwiring. Of course, the insufferable marketing machine that oversees our every thought will guarantee our happiness, provided we simply procure those “must-have” items, without which we will be branded with the label of Loser, always with a capital L.

Classic movies such as White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, etc., which should provide a measure of emotional tranquility, common sense and balance, might actually perform the opposite by virtue of their stark contrast to modern reality’s blaring, fluorescent, incessant assault on our sense and sensibilities…we know life seems so great when Jimmy Stewart hugs everybody at the end, but damn that’s a nice tree, and look at all those presents. How did he afford that house? I don’t want Christmas to look like it does in Dickens’ dark pages. I better push that old lady to the side so I can grab the last ElmoBarbieNintendoHilfigerNike gift item.

In my nightmarish mind, where all the forces of evil have won out, we all buy the exact same things, with some variation of color, size and such, at the same time, using currency controlled in the same currency-controlling institution, eating the same artificially-created “food” built in factories controlled by the same gigantic corporation that controls what we watch, how we travel, how our children are educated and medicated, to what they’re dedicated and with whom they’ve fornicated, but never should they be elevated, mostly just incarcerated—and, if need be, incinerated.

But it’s the holidays, and I’m no longer the Grinch who ran away from Christmas. I’m Glynda the good witch, I’m Gandolf the White, I’m Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz (“See, Martha, I told you he was a homo—he thinks he’s Judy Garland”), I’m Sidney Poitier in To Sir With Love, I’m the Dalai Lama…heck (see, I said heck), I’m Fernando Lamas, and by the way, “You look marrrvelous.”

I’m only exploring my beautiful dreamer mind, where everyone respects and encourages each other’s distinctly original persona. Where the most powerful, driven and ambitious members of humanity devote their efforts to improving the world while looking at how their actions affect our future. In my dreams we all live in one world as one family, whose differences are patiently tolerated and whose dreams are lovingly supported, and where desperation only exists in the hearts of those trying desperately to give, striving desperately to build bridges of understanding between all humans. In my dreams, the air is pure, the water runs free and clear and the earth sprouts fresh, unadulterated bounty grown and harvested with love. In my dream, the ongoing dream I hold in my heart, the dream that will burn so brightly that it blinds all my other dreams and extinguishes all nightmares in my brain, there is no war, no poverty, no hunger, except the battle to help one another, the broken poverty of obsolete emotions like anger and greed, and the hunger of the innocent child to learn, to grow, to jump for joy and the world playground in which to do it.

That’s my holiday dream, and as we can all begin to believe, every day’s a holiday.

One person who truly lives the way I just outlined it, and whose heart beats with love, is PAULETTE SUZANNE. Paulette and her Whole Person Health Services is based in Carlsbad and will be coming north to do a Naturopathic and Nutrition Seminar on Saturday, Dec. 2 in the meeting room at Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula on 490 Aguajito Rd. in Monterey. The talk will cover topics like intuitive eating, the causes of disease and nutrition’s role in the prevention of it, how to eat for life, and more, with helpful, important and easy-to-apply strategies for turning your life in a healthier direction. For more info or to RSVP call MICHELE REESE at 632-2167 or toyourhealth@sbclobal.net.

GOOD NEWS…The old Morgan’s coffee shop in Monterey, on Washington, is currently owned by two women, YVONNE BOLTZE and NANCY MOUAT, who have created a beautiful, tranquil space to enjoy good coffee, really tasty sandwiches, sweet treats and salads, beer and wine and live music at various times. They call the joint East Village Coffee Lounge and it is comfortable, friendly and really inviting, so go check it out promptly.

Meanwhile, the new MORGAN CHRISTOPHER is just about open with his Ol’ Factory Café in Sand City. I tried to check it out a few days ago but was a few days too early. The concept includes total commitment to sustainable, organic and all things delicious and good for you and the earth. Way to go Morgan. Try this place, it will be really good.

Meanwhile, also in Sand City, where they’ve begun construction on the beautiful Design Center, Sweet Elena’s has held the fort for a long time. ELENA makes the best pies and sweets around, using only fresh ingredients. For instance, her pumpkin pie includes real cream, fresh ginger, barley malt syrup and Myers rum so it’s not too sweet but incredibly delicious. Get down there and pick up a couple dozen pies for the holidays.

LAST MINUTE BLITZ…AIWF is holding a Celebration in Red with MICHEL ESCOFFIER, great grandson of the legendary Auguste Escoffier, father of modern culinary art. It takes place at Highlands Inn on Sunday, Nov. 19, at 4pm. Call MARY CHAMBERLIN, 624-0830, for more…stay well, think good thoughts, love a lot.