vogelein

Dream of: 13 January 2014 "Nature Preserve"



put yourself in the animal's place

I'm standing in front of the Farmhouse (on my father's Gallia County Farm) and looking down toward Symmes Creek at the bottom of the hill. I'm trying to see if any fish are in the water, but something seems to be clouding the water. I think the creek might have been fished out, but then I see quite a few small bluegills only about three centimeters long which are swimming along.

I keep looking at the water until I see a small black furry animal which appears to be swimming under the surface and occasionally sticking its head up above the water. Then I see a second similar animal and I think there might even be more. I think the animal might be a beaver, but it has a different form than a beaver and its coat looks sleeker than a beaver's coat. I know that beaver are in the creek, but this animal appears to be something different. When one of the animals breaks completely above the surface, I conclude that its an otter. I'm excited because I don't remember having ever seen otters here on the Farm. I'm happy to see them.

I see something else which I've never noticed before: a huge boulder sitting on the edge of the creek. The boulder has an irregularly shaped circular top which is perhaps thirty meters in diameter. The boulder has a rough flat surface on which is sitting some kind of furry animal. I keep looking at the animal and trying to figure out what it is, when I finally conclude that it is a gray monkey. I've never seen a monkey here on the Farm, so this is also interesting. I conclude that more and more animals must be inhabiting the Farm than previously. I have the feeling that various animals have become accustomed to sitting on this boulder and in a way it almost seems like a miniature nature preserve.

A female forest ranger is walking around in front of the Farmhouse when a man and woman show up. I listen to the conversation as the man and woman talk with the ranger and I become cognizant that they're talking about a government program in which a person can become a "supervisor" of a section of land. Apparently the boulder on the creek bank in front of the Farmhouse belongs to the government, and the man and woman are talking about becoming supervisors of this boulder.

As soon as I have the opportunity, I begin talking in private with the forest ranger and I ask her about this program. She says that an auction would take place to obtain the supervisory position over the boulder. She says that the lowest bid would be $5. I immediately decide that I want to take part in the auction. The man and the woman hear me talking with the ranger and I can tell that they're upset because they're the ones who came up with the idea, and now I'm taking over. It turns out that they live only a few kilometers away from the Farm. I point out that I live in this Farmhouse right in front of this boulder. I therefore have a greater claim on obtaining the permit than they.

Meanwhile, the ranger has been checking on the price. She now says that the lowest bid will be $250. I think to myself that even if I have to bid up to $1,000, I would still want the permit. I want to be the one who is responsible for this boulder.

Dream Commentary

It is striking how people who write dreams on the Dream Journal web site practically never advocate for anything in their dreams. Religious, political and social issues rarely arise, at least as far as I have seen. By way of illustration, when I do a title-search for the word "Republican" on the Dream Journal web site, I come up with 5 results, and a search of the word "Democrat", I come up with 4 results. The word "movie", on the other hand, gives me 555 results. Those results reinforce my observation.

I think the word I'm looking for is "compassion". I rarely see it in the dreams I read. What I do see is an extreme amount of self-absorption. I am particularly aware of this in the relations of dream-writers to animals. Rather than protecting animals, many dream-writers are far more concentrated on how good the animals taste. For them, as they stuff themselves with meat, an advocate of animal rights is simply a target of their compassionless mockery.

Just as I did not want the encroaching man and woman in this dream sitting in my front yard, so do I feel about self-absorbed dream-writers who have no compassion for animals. This is the message I receive from fish and otters and beavers and monkeys in my dreams, and I hope they will continue to talk to me with the compassion I need to free me from my own self-absorption.

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