I'm off this week. The Slice Blog will be back to normal next Monday. In the meantime, here's something I was thinking about. 

Shortly after Christmas, a man who lives at my mother's assisted living community told me about a dream he had. In fact, he gave me a written summary.

It was somewhat involved and had a religious theme. The biblical Mary played a featured role.

I don't know if he hoped I would say something about it in print. I thought at the time that he just wanted to share it.

The next time I saw him, I briefly discussed the dream and thanked him again for telling me about it.

I have seen this gentleman in passing many times since then. The dream never came up.

But when I encountered him this weekend he told me he had sent an account of his dream to the president of the United States.

He added that he had received a nice personal note acknowledging it, complete with the president's signature.

A couple of thoughts crossed my mind. But what I actually said was, "Wow, that's great!"

I did not speculate out loud about the likelihood that the president had ever seen his mailing. I did not allude to the existence of high-speed signature machines or letter-generating computer programs.

For that gentleman, the reply from the White House was an affirmation and the source of a big smile.

It wasn't my place to cast doubt. Besides, for all I know, a White House staffer passed along the summary of that dream and the president understood it better than I had.

"Think of that," I said to this man. "That's really something."

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