The Mind Works in Mysterious Ways

I am a big dreamer. Literally, I have lots of dreams every night. And I've always been fascinated by my dreams. Not in a "what did it mean" kind of way (people have given me dream interpretation books and frankly I think they're a bunch of BS), but in a "the mind is so strange" kind of way.

A couple of nights ago I had a dream which I barely remember at all, except that it had something to do with a secret hiding place in a house I lived in 25 years ago. When I woke up, I started trying to distinguish the dream from reality -- was there a secret hiding place in that house? I had a vague recollection that there was but wasn't sure if it came from the dream. And it's been bugging me ever since. I even contacted my brother (with whom I am not close) to ask him if he remembered any such secret hiding space. And lo and behold, he does!

So the question is -- why or how did my mind go to that strange secret hiding place on a random night in 2006, when I haven't seen or thought about that place since 1982? Not that I think it has any special meaning -- but I just think the mind is so fascinating that it would retain something SO RANDOM for so long.

Speaking of which, my step-grandfather is in the hospital, and recently he suffered through one of the very rare side effects of his chemo drug, which is hallucinations. He basically went into some sort of semi-coma, which made him talk all crazy and generally exhibit the effects of Alzheimers disease. This, too, was fascinating -- to see what kinds of things his mind came up with from his past. He talked a lot about football, and priests, and apparently was singing polish to his nurses. I never knew he even spoke polish. He didn't really know who anyone was, but he mentioned his sister (with whom he was apparently not close) and never mentioned his brothers (with whom he was extremely close). He also apparently thought he was flying an airplane which was in trouble. Thankfully he's come out of the fog (but is still quite ill in the hospital.). Every once in a while he goes back to that place, though -- like yesterday when I came to visit, and he started counting the fingers on his hands and couldn't understand why there were 5 on each hand.