Parallel Universes and “Germ Genes”: The Ramblings of My ADHD Mind
©Lori Lambert Williams 2025
A recent article examining why we sleep said it could be “parallel universes.” I didn’t read the article. Who knows what it proposed? But if – when I sleep – I go into a parallel universe, the “me” there certainly does not behave like the “me” here.
Last night, I dreamed that we somehow came into possession of a small wild animal that looked suspiciously like a skunk. But it was definitely tame and cute and I loved it. That part does sound like me. I could fall in love with something small and sweet and unusual.
In the dream, I was married to Jim (thankfully, because in some dreams I am married to strangers or celebrities.) Jim had given this little creature a six-inch piece of a bully stick, which is a long-lasting chew stick for dogs. This little guy just loved this bully stick and was really going after it, chewing it up like crazy.
But every now and then, he would stop, and the bully stick was just laying on the ground at his feet. I would absent-mindedly pick it up and bite off a piece and chew it. But before I swallowed, I would remember 1) that this was HIS bully stick, 2) that he had chewed it and it was therefore full of… skunk?… saliva (ew) and 3) that I could just spit it out and he would probably still consume the chewed up part, so nothing would go to waste.
THAT is the part that is so not like me. Just an example of me doing something in a dream that I would never do in real life. At least not in THIS universe.
I used to be somewhat of a germiphobe. Or is that “germaphobe”? Regardless, my mom had instilled in me that – being her daughter – I should have inherited good “germ genes” that immediately set off blaring alarms should any part of my body come in contact with germs.
As a normal human child, of course, I didn’t. In fact, I distinctly remember her yelling, “Lori! You don’t have any GERM GENES!”
Being from that generation of kids raised in the 60’s, I was sent out to play all day and told “Don’t come home unless you’re bleeding.”
Playing outside was such fun! I remember climbing a decorative brick wall that began to collapse while I was climbing it. Exciting! But related to this story, the germ gene was instilled after I found the greatest of all treasures: a dog leg!
Somehow in my travels as a 5-year old, I came upon the fur-covered leg of a creature. It could have been a monster or a wolf or some other exotic mystical being as far as I was concerned. But looking back, and remembering my mother’s horrified reaction when I proudly walked in the door of our house saying, “Mom! Look what I FOUND!!!” I now am pretty sure it was the leg of a deceased neighborhood dog.
Boy oh boy… That was the turning point in which my mother was finally able to instill the proverbial germ gene within me. (I don’t really know if the germ gene is actually “proverbial” – but I don’t remember bringing home any more dog legs.)
Mom screamed and made me get that THING out of the house immediately!
So why was I talking about germs and deceased dog legs?
Oh, yes!
We were discussing parallel universes and whether dreams are us, living in a parallel universe. But back to germ genes and my past life as a germaphobe:
After the ill-famed Dog Leg Incident, I became very germ-conscious. Right after we began living together, I walked into the bathroom and Jim had his food… no, wait. I meant to say FOOT – Jim had his FOOT on the open toilet seat. (It would be really gross to have anyone’s FOOD on an open toilet seat… but I’m getting distracted again.)
Jim had his foot on the open toilet seat because he was doing necessary foot maintenance, like trimming toenails and filing off corns and stuff like that. Logical scientist that he is, he wanted all the shavings to fall into the toilet, so it makes sense to do it over the open toilet seat, right?
Suddenly turning into a direct clone of my mother, I said – in her voice – “Jim! Don’t you have any GERM GENES?!!”
Jim is a former biologist. You would think that anyone with an education in biology would not even need to be born with germ genes. That person would have learned about how germy everything is and how close we live to death just by existing with germs.
But no. You simply cannot put your foot germs where your butt germs are supposed to go. By putting his foot on the open toilet seat, he was mixing germs! Oh the horror…
At the time, I was only half serious, recognizing my mother’s germaphobic nature alive and well within me while at the same time determining that I needed to bleach the toilet seat before I used it again.
As kids, we are mystified at how strange our parents are. Then we grow up to be just like them in many ways. I had become my mother.
As such, I would never grab the half-eaten bully stick from my pet skunk and chew on it!
What does that prove? Well, it either proves that dreams ARE parallel universes, and that was a parallel universe in which I obviously had a different mother who did not pass on any germ genes to me… OR, it proves that dreams are weird and I do things in dreams that I would never do in real life.
I am leaning more towards dreams being dreams. This was just one of those silly fun dreams that has no serious meaning and – hopefully – doesn’t prophesy things to come.
