Screams From An Open Door

A Dream, A Reckoning, and a Call to Courage

The dream lingered long after I awoke, haunting the edges of my consciousness like a shadowy figure I couldn’t quite identify.

Through the street-level open door, I saw her—a mother unleashing her rage on her son, beating him unmercifully. The boy’s silent cries cut deeper than any audible wail could, his fragile body absorbing blows not just from his mother’s fists but from the weight of her unexamined pain.

By her side, a man, presumably the boy’s father, watched with chilling detachment, his silence more complicit than any word could be.

When I yelled “Hey!”—not as a command but as an instinctive plea to restore humanity—the man stepped outside, his face a mask of fury. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t shut up, if I dared to speak of what I had seen.

And then I woke up.

From a Jungian perspective, this dream is rich with archetypes — the tyrannical mother, the indifferent father, the silenced child, and the moral witness—the part of me that refuses to look away.

It’s a confrontation with the shadow, both personal and collective. The mother’s violence might symbolize generational trauma, and the father’s passivity represents societal complicity.

The open door aspect of my dream is key—a liminal space inviting me to act or retreat. The I Ching’s wisdom echoes here: Hexagram 43, Breakthrough, reminds us of the courage required to root out evil and confront what is wrong. It warns of danger but insists that integrity must prevail.

From a Taoist alchemical lens, this dream mirrors the internal struggle between courage and fear, yang and yin. Speaking out is an act of transformation, a transmutation of base emotions like anger and fear into the gold of compassion and action.

Yet Taoism also teaches discernment. Not every battle is worth engaging in directly. Sometimes, the greatest wisdom lies in choosing the path of least resistance, letting the Tao work through us in ways unseen.

But as a Black man, my soul resonates with those of chocolate persuasion who boldly stood in the face of societal wrongs. James Meredith walking alone through the hostility of Ole Miss. Frederick Douglass baring his back as testimony to the horrors of slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. preaching nonviolence to a violent nation. Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali boldly naming America’s hypocrisies.

Not to be forgotten is my buddy Lao Tzu, whose retreat into the mountains whispered an eternal truth — that those who follow the Tao do not cling to power but disrupt it with their authenticity.

The dream reminded me of John Lewis, who called us to create “Good Trouble.” He knew that to challenge the system is to invite retaliation. Speaking truth to power is no passive act. Rather it involves a willingness to risk, to bleed, to endure taunts, threats, or even death.

Anarchists like Emma Goldman might argue that these power structures, whether familial or political, perpetuate cycles of abuse and silence. They would urge us not just to confront these injustices but to dismantle the systems that enable them.

This courage is not abstract. Instead it is forged in the fire of lived experience. To see something wrong and speak out is an act of radical love—not just for the victim but for humanity itself. But love, real love, requires bravery. It demands that we abandon comfort and embrace risk.

As a Black man in a nation that touts democracy while operating as a republic, I see voting as necessary but insufficient—a lazy man’s solution. True change isn’t in casting ballots but in casting light on the darkness, whether through protests, organizing, or the quiet revolution of embodying justice in our daily lives.

The question remains: is it worth the cost? Is it worth the bruises, the threats, the risk of losing everything? Yes. Because to remain silent is to betray not just others but oneself. It is to close the door and pretend you didn’t see.

To those wrestling with courage, I say this: anchor yourself in the Tao. Flow with its wisdom but do not mistake flowing for acquiescence.

Speak out when you see wrongs, but choose your battles wisely. And remember the dream.

The door is open. What will you do?

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Diamond- Michael Scott — aka The Chocolate Taoist