In His Shoes

I had the strangest dream the other night. I was on a ship for one minute but then I wasn't. You know how weird dreams can be... Anyways, I can't really remember where I was or who I was with, all I can recall is that there were three pairs of shoes on the floor. I tried the closest pair on. As I was tying my right shoe, I looked up and realized I was in an unknown place. I did, however recognize a few faces. Where had I seen them, I began to wonder. That's when it hit me. I knew them from my History textbook! I stood up and everything seemed smaller than I imagined. I was Abraham Lincoln. "Are you all-right Mr. President?," I heard someone ask. I nodded and sat down. Instantly, something changed and I was no longer conscious of the soul change I had just experienced. It felt like I had been the sixteenth president of the United States all my life. I remember saying "fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," and actually believing it. I was aware of slavery and wanted to fight against it, but I knew that first, I had to get the Union back together. Then I don't remember exactly how it happened but for some reason I started trying another pair of shoes on. My beard was gone, but I was still tall. I was more built than before actually. "Those inferiors serve no purpose!" I heard myself saying. It is now that I realize how awful that makes me seem. But when I said it it seemed totally fine. I really did see myself as superior. I looked at all those natives and thanked God I had been born in Europe. Suddenly my body started rocking from one side to the other. I looked at my feet and had the third pair of shoes on. I was on that ship again, the one from the beginning. Some men were surrounding me and I was telling a story. I was talking about how misguided the task of civilizing natives is. I thought it was wrong not because it was unmoral, but because I found it useless. I never thought those savages could learn anything and therefore found it to be a hopeless project. I woke up with The Heart of Darkness resting on my chest. I began to think about the different existing perspectives on colonization and equality. Sounds like blog material, I thought.