Blue_Opossum

Morning of April 1, 1973. Sunday.



I am in my backyard in Cubitis and there is what is supposedly “the longest snake in the world” a few feet south of me though I do not really feel in danger at any time. A few other unknown and unfamiliar people are around. It is a long skinny black snake that does not seem very threatening. In fact, I am not even sure if it is that much alive, though it does show some minimal signs of life. Its head is at the southeast corner of the house near the utility room and the rest of it is lined easterly across the yard almost to the weedy area prior to the train track embankment.

There is an unusual but rather vague idea that it will grow longer and longer until it reaches around the world, yet that seems not at all inevitable as it does not seem to be growing or even moving much. Not much happens, and it stays in the same area for the most part.

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It is very clear here that the snake is a “replacement” for a virtual fence between my yard and the girl who lives next door (where no barrier of any kind exists in reality). Even though the idea of a black snake keeping rattlesnakes away (which I heard fairly often during this time period) is probably not true, that does not stop a dream from utilizing such a myth. Therefore, the black snake analogy as fence and as protector is consistent as a fence also protects in a different way. In other words, at the time, I seemed to believe the girl next door needed protection from me even though the relationship we had never developed into harmful long-term repercussions. Is there a “temptation” layer as snakes sometimes represent? Perhaps on one level due to the deplorable Adam and Eve myth but only if one has heard it once too often. I could step over this virtual fence but I do not (though I do not feel threatened by it). Therefore, the snake serves as a fence, a protector, and as a reminder of temptation - all in one concise composite that dreams are so intriguingly known for.