Hang Time [antikvár]

ONE "I do dream," he said one night. We had been talking about that word- -the word "dream"—and how often people seemed to use it when referring to him. The word came up so frequently in conversations when strangers were discussing him, it was almost as if the usage was involuntary. People would use it when trying to explain how he inspired young boys and girls: "Michael Jordan teaches children to dream." People would use it when endeavoring to make the point that no goal should be considered unreachable: "Michael Jordan shows that you should never give up on your dreams." It had become a part of his job, really—he stood constant visible sentry as living, public proof that dreams can come true. Not that he was endrely comfortable with it; who would be? And anyway, the dreams that were always talked about when his name was mendoned—dreams as inspirations, dreams as goals— were not literal dreams. A dream is something that happens when you aren't in control; a dream is what takes over when you have finally fallen asleep for the night, and you have had to temporarily give up the task of attempting to direct your life. A dream is not yours to determine. "Most of the dme I'll sleep right through the night," Jordan said. "But on the nights when I do have dreams, I wake up remembering them." Most of the people who speak about Jordan and dreams are people who don't know him; that's another aspect of being who he is. We'd been talking about this, and I had brought up the subject of real dreams. Dreams like the rest of us have, two-