and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Rough man. That's a rough one down there. So here's the deal, as I see it.

There is only now. My two good friends here talked often about this book called "The power of now," and one of them finally just gave it to me. I don't really like it, surely in large part because what I've been thinking to myself for so long is in there. I want it to be mine, still, and there it is for all to reference. But here's the point, and I might even recommend that you pick it (new agey and irritating as it is) up.

There is only now. This is not really arguable, at least from an intuitive human perspective. The future doesn't actually exist, nor does the past. The future and past exist only in the present, as mental constructions, as (re)presentations. As goal states, most often to be pursued, to be avoided, or to be learned from. Life will never actually reach or become these goal states because the contructions are incomplete, fantastical, and frankly, life doesn't give a shit what your goal state is. Life will always be slightly different, more complex, less perfect, or whatever. So, though it can be very helpful to have these goal states, 1) the more you become attached to achieving the goal state in the form that it takes in your mind, the more you will be disappointed. 2) The more time you spend focusing on these goal states, the less time you have to actually do other stuff in the present. And 3) though you may enjoy the goal state when it arrives, chances are, that if you've been practicing working towards a goal, you may likely be working towards another goal at that point, and not present enough to suck the juice out of the future present.

Anyway, I don't think that a lot of that's in the book. That's just me. Because I'm so cool. Because I have other ideas that I didn't even put down here. But, what I'm trying to say is that, as much as it does ring of the new age garbola that I loathe so, one never actually finishes the marathon. Or rather, I don't plan to. And I sure as fuck don't expect anyone to be there waiting for me if I do.