My Weird Dream

I had the weirdest dream about the Michigan Central Station on Saturday night. I mentioned this dream in my Facebook status, which prompted a couple of people to ask about it. Since there's no way I could possibly describe this one in the limited space that Facebook gives for status updates, I figured I would make this into a blog post.

Anyway, in my dream, I was walking near the long-abandoned Michigan Central Station. The building was in its current condition. I remember the sensation that there were a couple of other people walking along with me in this dream, but I'll be darned if I can remember who they are.

Then things started getting a little weird.

A random generic looking guy (white male, brown hair, brown eyes, average height, medium build, wearing a gray suit) walked up to one of the doors. He tried to open them, but discovered that it was locked. The doors weren't chained or anything like they currently are - just locked.

He then walked up to me and asked if the station was going to be open soon. I told him that some folks were trying to get re-opened but that it was still vacant.

As I looked back at the Station, I noticed that all of its broken windows had been fixed and the graffiti had been removed. The generic looking guy then said, "thank you" and walked back towards the Station.

A revolving door had somehow appeared. He walked through it and into the station.

I remember being shocked, both by the fact that there was a revolving door and that this man in the gray suit was able to walk into the Michigan Central Station in the first place. Of course, to make things even weirder still, the Station itself seemed to change as soon as the man walked inside.

The building's classic Beaux-Arts design became much sleeker and more modern. The windows morphed into this blueish- green color.

My friends and I were curious about all of this so we followed the man inside. When we entered the building, we were shocked to see a place that looked futuristic as did the hundreds of people who there. This sounds odd, but the scene was reminiscent of the Promenade from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - except that everyone in sight was human. There were crowds of people booking passage for one destination or another and lots of people walking around, all seeming to be on their way to someplace important.


At that point, another friend of mine - who happens to be an architect - walked up to us in this dream. He seemed excited. He smiled broadly as he described what it was like to work on bringing the Michigan Central Station back to life.

We were interrupted by a smiling blonde woman in a blue suit who described how the Station's rebirth was financed. She mentioned a series of tax credits, including the jobs tax credit, which - oddly enough - expired back in 1984. (I had this weird desire to look it up as soon as awoke.)

I woke up right after this woman explained the financing to me. It's hard to explain, but I just felt really, really surreal.

Since then, I been mulling over different part of my dream; wondering what they all meant.

I had this feeling that the man in a gray suit was important so I Googled "man in gray suit". I was shocked by what I popped up.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit was a movie from 1956 starring Gregory Peck. It was based on a novel of the same title by Sloan Wilson. Anyway, the man in my dream looked a lot like Gregory Peck's character in this movie - except that combed his hair differently and didn't wear a hat.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is one of those movies and books that I read about long ago. However, I don't think I've ever actually seen the movie or read the novel. It's all about a man's struggle to support his family and still find a sense of personal meaning in the modern business world.

Anyway, I'm still not sure how all of this connects to Michigan Central Station or anything else. All that I know is that I have this sudden desire to track down a copy of Sloan Wilson's novel or rent the movie.