THE ULTIMATE EXPO: Was That Heaven?

On Sunday, when I reported on the Osaka triumph, I promised to follow up on World Expos.  I wonder if that thought actually triggered a wonderful dream I had last night.

I only very rarely have long dreams, and most of them tend to be dark and on the verge of being nightmarish.  Like being lost on a trip, usually compounded by some misplaced or stolen luggage.

This latest was evocative of one of my most memorable, Suicide Dreams, published in The Huffington Post almost seven years ago.  That title certainly sounds appalling, but the dream itself was one of my better ones, and the setting was Waikiki sometime in the future when the Sheraton is at least five times larger in a well-hued resort environment with interesting mysteries.

This Ultimate Expo seemingly occurred in what might well have been Heaven.  This dream was expansive and colorful with hordes of happy people.  In a way it reminded me of the above Waikiki, but more psychedelic, and less organized.  Take all the World Expos and Fairs and mash them together in a weird sort of way, for I've been to almost all of them since:

• 1962, when, just after graduating from Stanford, I found my way to Seattle for their Century 21 Exposition.
• Expo 67 was held in Montreal, and a year later, my wife and I were just driving around the country and decided to stop at the fair site which was still intact.

• Expo 75 was held in Okinawa, and I also came after it was over to visit Aquapolis, the floating platform that was largely responsible for my Blue Revolution to come.
• I was working in the U.S. Senate, so I drove to Knoxville for the 1982 World's Fair, with the theme:  Energy Turns the World.

• I was working with the Japanese government to form the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, so they arranged for me to tour the 1985 World's Fair in Tsukuba.  Really nice for me, as I did not stand in any lines, the bane of these gatherings.  I most remember a giant tomato plant with thousands of tomatoes.
• In 1992 I went to the Seville Expo, which was a last minute decision, for I was already in Europe, and ended up staying at the Hotel Alfonso XIII and paid a ridiculous sum for my stay.

• The Lisbon Expo '98 was supposed to have an ocean theme.  I participated in the early planning and tried to get Portugal and Japan to tow Aquapolis to Lisbon.  You can read the full details here.  We failed, and the fair was desultory.

• Only two years later came the Hanover Expo 2000.  The USA declined to participate, and mostly because after the Seville Expo, the U.S. Congress ruled that these extravaganzas were too expensive and the private sector would need to pay for them.
• In 2005 Japan hosted the Aichi Expo.  Okay, but nothing special.

• The Shanghai 2010 World Expo was spectacular!  Leighton was able to secure VIP passes from his colleague in China, and we had a quick access to all exhibits.  The U.S. exhibit was an embarrassing joke.  We advertised a 4-D slide show.  What it was was four screens of slides.

• The Yeosu Expo 2012 was The Living Ocean and Coast.  A general disappointment, but I liked the colors.
• The Milan Expo 2015 Expo was one of the better ones.  However, this was a mere stop on a 65-day around the world trip, where I had lost a tooth and suffered from food poisoning, but had the best day ever on a trip, in Venice.  The European river cruise was memorable.

So imagine amalgamating all the above into a dream in a fluffy sort of way.  There was no actual beginning.  What I remember, and things are getting fuzzy, is that I was at what looked like a world fair as a 15 Craigside outing.  But I was mostly walking around alone and wondering where we were supposed to meet and at what time so that we could be taken home by our van.  

Therefore, this expo must have been occurring in Hawaii, which was the focus of another HuffPo published more than seven years ago entitled, The Sustainable Expo for 2020.  The theme was Visions for Blue Planet Earth, and was all about the Blue Revolution.  

If this inspiration became reality, Hawaii would have been well on our way to greatness.  Well, Dubai will be the site of Expo 2020.

I don't remember eating anything.  In fact, as I think about it, I don't seem to consume food in any of my dreams.  My anxiety level was rising when I saw my college freshman roomate, Jim.  He was with a couple of friends, perhaps Kathy (here they are more recently), and in this dream, must have also resided at 15 Craigside, for I asked him when we were supposed leave.  He never really answered, so I followed them, and we then all looked at the sky, all meaning a hundred thousand people, gazing up.  

It was getting close to sunset but there was a hole in the clouds, and the implication, I sensed, was that we were viewing Planet Earth in the far background.  Thus, we must have been in Heaven.  

I tried to take a photo, and was carrying my $85 Sony (that's the smaller one).  Wouldn't that be something if the next time I download there is this shot?

Further on I saw a translucent barber shop, but more beauty salon.  The light coming out was glaring, and the colors were psychedelic.  Imagine this scene to the left with a hundred manicuring tables.  I was tempted to enter.  Maybe not coincidentally, I need a haircut and should do something soon about my long nails.

The group then headed towards a Boston/John F. Kennedy exhibit where we thought we'd have dinner.  We bumped into Cookie (right), except this one seemed younger and had brownish hair.  In fact, the few people I recognized were all around half their present ages.  Except that I felt old, but yet, with all the walking around, was not at all exhausted.  In fact, I was exhilarant.  She once ran the programs at 15 Craigside and led us on most of our outings.  I asked her when we were gathering to return home.  She returned a strange look and suggested, what about around 10:30?  What immediately occurred to me was how she would inform the others, as no one who looked familiar was with her...when I woke up.

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