Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Details

I have three types of dreams. Most are just entertainment, my subconscious screwing around. Rarely remember those. Some are literally training exercises: my subconscious sets up a scenario and lets the conscious mind solve the problem. Some of these are memorable, and most are bloody with military situations, monsters... but they're never nightmares per se since I never feel helpless or defeated.

The symbolic dreams are very rare, but I always remember them for a few days and they are easy to recognize. A few days ago, the dream was about a group of people (familiar in the dream but I almost never dream about people I actually know) in the high desert of Eastern Oregon near a shack, a mine and an outhouse looking at the carcasses of vultures. I was admiring the intricacies of the skeleton and others were complaining of the smell or wondering what to do.

I didn't get the dream. It was clearly symbolic and my subconscious never does this unless there is something important in real life that I'm missing. Usually it's a fairly quick interpretation. I didn't get this one and Kami couldn't help.

So the next night, the subconscious lobbed an easy one- Trying to teach someone to interpret tracks there was a place where a bird had tried to land on a piece of snow that looked like a perch and the snow had broken. The broken snow perch and the light marks of the feathers told the story and I was badgering the student to SEE it. The whole time I never noticed that the bird, a very young robin, was lying on the ground beneath the interesting track, freezing.

Too much time spent on details is the message. Look at the big picture. Trivia is a distraction when people are hurting around you. The tracks are important, but not when what made them is right there...

Cool to have a subconscious that that can dumb down when I need it.

3 comments:

Molly said...

I still don't see how the freezing Robin (something that needs your attention) relates to the smell of the out house and vultures. Being able to direct others out of their discomfort, into focusing on important, cool or interesting things is one of your gifts.
And as far as getting into the details of the track while the Robin suffers "unnoticed," this also seems to be a stretch. You may not react the way people around you want or expect, but I've never known you to be completely oblivious.

Anonymous said...

If I'd had those dreams, they would be about not focusing on what I'm interested in when there's a job to be done. Not being selfish that way.

Kai Jones snippy@pacifier.com

The Moody Minstrel said...

Dream interpretation can be fun...until it portends disaster.

Ever have prophetic dreams?