in-the-berlin-subway-2520763I used to have a somewhat recurring dream as a teenager.

Hearing the drone of engines overhead I look up to see a pattern of bombers heading towards me. The first wave of bombs drop just as the leading line of planes block the sunlight overhead. A heartbeat later the  second wave drops. Then another and another until the sky is filled with planes and falling bombs.

I dodge the bombs and resulting explosions one after the other, my legs moving at half time in my paralyzed dream state. Willing them to move faster I jump from one side of the street to the other watching the destruction around me but, somehow, miraculously staying just ahead of it all.

It was the early Eighties. The height of the Cold War when we all feared the Soviets would push their ‘red button’ and rain nuclear war down on us. The imagery must have come from old war movies I had watched but the fear was very real every time I woke up.

We came upon this graffiti in the U-Bahn (Underground) in Berlin. I hadn’t thought of the dream for many years but was stopped dead in my tracks as my mind raced back to what was illustrated right in front of me.