(All I Have to Do is) Dream: Why The Sandman is Important To Me

My first encounter with the works of Neil Gaiman was in 2009 when I sat in a dark theater and was delighted by the Henry Selick adaptation of Gaiman’s Coraline. I immediately sought out a copy of the book and was entranced by his writing, as it was exactly the kind of fantasy writing I enjoyed reading, mixing the magic and wonder of the real world with that of a fantastical world that could only exist in imagination. I was hooked, and soon I had also collected American Gods, Anansi Boys, and several of his short stories. This is when I first became aware of The Sandman, but I wouldn’t actually read it until a few years later when I was in film school. I was roaming the school library for some good reading material, and they had a large collection of the trade paperbacks of each volume of Sandman. I had never been a huge comic book person despite enjoying superheroes on television and film, but Neil’s name meant It was at least worth a look. I tore through each volume (although I admit I got a tad impatient and skipped some of the stand-alone tales to finish the full arc of the story, something I have remedied on subsequent re-reads). For my senior thesis in film school, I focused on a story about dreams and traveling through them, and to say this isn’t influenced by Sandman would be an outright lie. I had written some of the basics before I read the whole of Sandman, but it really took shape when I wanted to tell my own story set in dreams. I even got to discuss it with Neil Gaiman himself when I had the great fortune to spend an evening with him and his wife. He gave me great advice to tell my story, and very kindly signed my favorite volume of Sandman, A Game of You, and his signature had the wonderful advice to “Dream Dangerously” which I have tried my best to do ever since. Throughout my time in Film School I dreamed of possibly getting to adapt Sandman for HBO or some similar television network someday, and while that has not come to pass, I was so thankful for it being a part of my education. 

Several years passed, I had graduated, moved to Florida and had spent many years working at a certain Haunted Mansion in a certain theme park, and Sandman still stuck with me. I would go back and reread my favorite bits over and over again, and was excited when they were working on a film adaptation with Joseph Gordon-Levitt involved,and then even more excited when Netflix announced they were making a series out of the show, which I always felt was the best way to adapt the material.

And then my life fell apart. 2019 came into my life like a force of nature, destroying as much as it could. I wound up in the hospital multiple times and discovered that my body was basically destroying itself after I let it fall into disrepair due to a severe bout of depression. Between this and being stuck indoors during the pandemic, it got worse, and I ended up having to leave my job, which lost me not only a place I loved working for but friends too. I started to feel very alone. I wound up back in the hospital and physical rehab. I had to move out of an apartment that had been home for years, into a strange new home with a strange new roommate, and the loneliness continued to mount. I was in constant pain, and often, the only real voice I had to speak to was the one in my head, which was quickly becoming a much darker voice than it had ever been before. I used to tell myself I’d never consider suicide, it just wasn’t my style, but in the dark of lonely nights, trapped in a room by myself, I did. I thought about how perhaps it would just be better if I was no longer here, and that dark voice getting so much stronger than I ever imagined it could. I had one thing I was looking forward to…The Sandman adaptation. It feels silly to say that a television show was the only thing I had to look forward to, but it’s true. I found a small group of fans on Twitter and they were so kind and welcoming to an older guy who just wanted to watch his favorite story become a show. To help with the long wait and anticipation I finally sat down and listened to the Audible audiobook adaptation of The Sandman, which I had been avoiding as I typically have a hard time with audiobooks, but once I listened, I found myself discovering the magic of the world of The Sandman in a new way, and it felt as if for the first time. As I sat in my bed, struggling with my pain and health, I could make all that go away by putting my headphones on, and listening to Dream of the Endless go on his journeys.

When I first read the comics, one of the one-off short stories on my first read-through that didn’t quite click with me was Facade, a story that features Death meeting a woman named Urania Blackwell (Element Girl for comic savvy folk) who was cursed to be made of different elements and it was slowly destroying her life and mental state. As I listened to the Audible version of this story, it suddenly became real. A woman who can barely leave her apartment due to her condition, her only real companion being a weekly phone call, and a desire, but inability, to kill herself. I found myself silently sobbing as Urania spoke with Death about her life being miserable. I then began to imagine my conversation with Death, the kind goth woman who Gaiman imagined to whisk people from this life to whatever comes next with kindness and a smile. I realized that Sandman had saved me. The dark voice started to go quiet in my mind. 

I admit, I still struggle with these thoughts sometimes, and I am still finding my way back to what I sometimes refer to as “normal” but it has been so helpful to have this world to escape to, to help make sense of my reality. It reminded me how simple it is to go somewhere special, and reminded me that all I have to do is dream. 

Thanks to Neil Gaiman (@neil-gaiman), Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, and all the artists who have worked on Sandman over the years. As you have done so to many hundreds of thousands of readers before me, you inspired me. You inspired me in 2012, and then you saved me in 2022. I can’t thank you enough and I can’t wait to watch the entirety of the new show and find myself lost in that world yet again. 

May we all continue to dream dangerously 

Donald Hallene III

this changed it all

lifehack: when you see a Take One candy bowl in a restaurant, wait until noones looking and shovel candy into your pockets. god may judge you but his sins outnumber your own

“God may judge you but his sins outnumber your own.” We really need to start collecting and sourcing these Potent Quotables.

I’ve been doing this for years

It’s all on a google doc of mine (x)

“Kill me. Kill me and live with the memory. Then tell the stars that you won.” -fucking Warrior Cats

We live in a socie-

Wait wait you forgot the mushroom post “you can’t kill me in a way that matters” +the following uhhhh 1 sec

I find the mushroom post :)

sorry

sorry

Can we go ahead and add “one day you’ll decompose, and I’ll be there to watch it happen” to the list please

@imfunnydamit

“There is not enough time to make all the things one’s imagination can conjure” - @reyndesign

Every single one of these quotes is going in my next grimoire

they're girlfriends,,,

omggg i just got the stickers and they're so sTUNNING im cry

dinghuart on Instagram

Terry knew.

"...the kind who brushed the dog and told their children bedtime stories..."

That passage leads into this one:

Yup.

Terry knew.

damn ok lake superior

Ok yeah that lake is superior

wolf & bunny: a love story

Got these insert for my boots- just lace them in, and your boots are now zip ups! Excellent for people like me with weak joints that struggle with laces but love boots!!

They have so many colours!!! Website is www.tongueties.co.uk

NOT A PAID ADVERT I JUST BOUGHT THEM AND LOVE THEM!!

SCREAMS?!??!??

In the early 70s Sesame Street was created with an eye towards educating poor, inner-city children for free, and became a massive hit with all children. In 2016, faced with going off the air forever after facing conservative efforts to destroy public broadcasting since basically its beginning, new episodes became a timed exclusive for premium cable network HBO. In 2022 HBO Max, newly merged with and taken over by reality TV channel Discovery, removed Sesame Street episodes and spin-offs from streaming as a tax write-off and scheme to avoid paying residuals.

Sesame Street's official YouTube channel is uploading the episodes for free, btw. A lot of creators are rebelling against this bullshit.

As always, America, PBS has you and your kids' backs.

I also want to put in a plug for the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, spearheaded by GBH in Boston to preserve and make available public funded programming from around the country.  More than 7000 public television and radio programs are available to stream through the website, with more than 40000 hours of programming archived and available to researchers and educators through the Library of Congress and GBH itself.

https://americanarchive.org/

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pikaole’s bird sticker pack updated~ 

sometimes plushies make me cry because it’s like. they’re little guys made to be loved. their only purpose is to be held and hugged and loved. we made them because we love making things and we love loving things. and they’re so cute

Years back, I was working at a specialty store, and we got this HUGE crate of plushy toys. They were all insanely cute and squishy. I knew kids would go nuts for them, as it was the first week of December, so parents and grandparents often had kids with them while shopping for furniture, lamps, cooking equipment, lights, etc.

One night, I was working my last hour of my shift covering the Customer Service desk, which meant when I wasn't busy, I was supposed to help clean up around the cash registers, including taking back items people changed their minds about at the checkout. Earlier, I had witnessed a kid carrying thos cute plushy toy. It was a brown and white hedgehog. The kid, at the checkout, saw a remote control car and he told his dad he qanted it. The dad told him, "The plushy or the car- you can't have both" (by the way, I respect boundaries with kids and parents sticking to their guns about it), and the kid picked the car.

So, I'm cleaning up, have less than an hour left of my shift, and I see the little plushy hedgehog. Somehow, he never got put back nor had anyone else seen him and decided to buy him. He was just sitting there, slumped to the side, unattended.

It's Christmas and I'm a sentimental old sap at heart. My brain starts replaying the scene from RUDOLPH where he's on the Island of Misfot Toys, and is told a toy is never truly happy until it is loved. I picked him up and quickly took him back to the bin with the plushies but... It was empty. He was literally the last plushy toy and my boss was about to wheel the bin out. We weren't getting any more toys till November, so that meant any toys left at this point needed to sell or they'd be sent to the dump.

I brought the little hedgehog to the front, figuring someone would see him with the candy, candles, & Christmas brick-a-brack, and fall in love with him. When I finished my shift, I went to ask my manager a question and as I passed the Christmas candle display - there he sat, the sad little slumped over hedgehog plushy. No one had bought him, or even moved him.

My manager, Phillip, saw me and the hedgehog. He asked how the hedgehog got there. I told him how I'd put him there when the bin got sent back, and he was the only plushy left. Philip had kids, I figured he'd probably get sentimental and buy it for his kids. Nope. He shrugged and said he'd send it back to be disposed of.

That night, I came home with a plushy hedgehog in my passenger seat. My mom saw him and just thought he was the cutest little hedgehog and asked what I wanted to do with him. I told her the story, then added I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with him.

My mom is a child psychiatrist, specializing in children with PTSD and brain damage that results in learning problems/issues with processing their emotions. She asked if she could have the plushy hedgehog (even offered to pay me for him, she didn't expect me to just give him over), so kids could hug him when they were upset in session.

Murphy, the plushy hedgehog that still slumps a little to the left when seated, has been hugged by hundreds of kids. Little girls have held him tight while explaining about bullies, little boys have held him tight while crying over their panic attacks, younger siblings have held him to whisper secrets while elder siblings and parents talk about self-soothing techniques, teenagers have hugged Murphy while talking about the worst day of their lives. Murphy has also been hugged by kids excitedly chatting about a new friend at school, a teen girl excited to be called by her name instead of her dead-name, little kids proudly saying they've mastered their ABCs, and even staff members who just need to come chat over a case they are having trouble with.

Every now and then, my mom brings Murphy home for a weekend. He gets washed (she calls it a Spa Weekend, to her coworkers, all of them laughing), dried, and sits outside with my mom in the sunshine to get aired out, then on Monday, they are back to work. Some kids even just ask to hold Murphy while they talk, no matter their mood or what they want to talk about. They just want to hug Murphy.

So yes. Plushies are made for one purpose. To be hugged and loved. To be a comfort.

By the wonderful @myjetpack

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In summer, the Hitokotonushi Shrine in Ibaraki sets up on oasis for bees where they can safely collect water