Time to get a bit personal.
I have this recurring nightmare where I am trapped in Scrutton Street in London.
It is always 9.
30 in the morning.
It is a cold, misty morning, and I am stuck behind a desk in a dreary office.
Various zombies are going about their business, and I am tapping away at a computer keyboard when suddenly a vision appears.
It is an old and grey man, obviously on his last legs.
But the shock is always terrible when I realize the vision is an older version of myself.
I never get used to it.
The vision stares at me and I begin to shake.
He speaks to me, "Michael, you must leave this place of horror.
Leave now.
" I speak to the vision, "I can't leave.
I'm stuck here.
" The vision becomes angry and speaks again, "You must leave.
Leave, or end up like me.
I was young once and had everything to live for.
Then I fell in with the wrong crowd.
They were office workers and they destroyed my life.
Leave! Run from this hell of computers, phones and photocopiers!" But I am paralyzed.
I can't get out of my chair.
I scream at the vision, "I can't leave! I'm trapped!" Then I wake up in my bed, drenched in sweat, and realize I am not wasting my life in Scrutton Street.
The relief is overwhelming.
What does it all mean? Will I really become like that vision? No.
No.
I am far away from Scrutton Street, and I will never return.