Saturday, November 3, 2012

Dream: Helping the Ski-Jump Penguin in the House

I'm in a house, in a small hallway at the bottom of half a flight of stairs.  There is snow on both the floor and the stairs, and it slopes up the wall that opposes the stairs.  Cut into this wall is a rectangular hole, about the size of a piece of paper, and it's positioned very high up.

A penguin slides down the stairs and tries to launch himself up into the hole like a ski jump Olympian.  He tries again and again, but he cannot get himself high enough.  Some other animals are here to witness this.

I offer to find a way to help him.  Then I immediately regret making the offer.  I cannot lift him high enough myself.  I am neither tall enough to reach the hole nor am I strong enough to lift the penguin.  So instead I must find another creature that can lift him.

I know of a grey, hairy ogre in the house who is tall enough to reach that hole even when he's hunched over, which he usually is.  The trick is to find him.  It should be easy given that he's so big.  But the house is big, with many meandering hallways and rooms.  He could be anywhere.

I walk through the angular hallways looking this way and that.  Then I come upon the large yellow room in which the old and venerable Queen Witch, Esmerelda, sits.  I decide to ask her for help.  I know she is not tall and cannot lift the penguin any better than I, but she is very wise and might come up with a solution.  I approach her with reverence and a bit of trepidation.  She is fair, but she is extremely busy and a bit impatient.

I explain the situation, and I draw the rectangular hole with a pencil on a yellow legal pad.  Before I realize what I'm doing, I've drawn the lever of an electrical switch.  I even drew a sign the for the switch.  The sign reads, "Nuclear Weapon."  I apologize to the Queen Witch as I erase the unnecessary detail.

She says that it's significant that I have labeled the switch in this way, and she asks me why I did so, just as a mental health professional would ask.  Without thinking, I simply blurt out that it probably describes my explosive state of mind.  Then I thank her for asking about this.

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