The Quangle Wrangle's Hat
I suddenly realize I am just minutes away from being late to class. I start running even though I know it's very far away. I arrive at class as it's starting. I notice that I'm not winded at all (dream sign).
My seat is in a very large circular auditorium. I look around and notice almost everyone in the class except me is black. I consider this and think it's a easy class to get an A in, low academic requirements, and that's why everyone's taking. While I'm sitting there, a dog comes up to me and says hello.I noticed that it's shape and confirmation are shifting while I'm looking at it (dream sigh), but still it's very friendly. I say hello and pet him.
While I'm noticing that all the other students are black I'm also realizing how beautiful and attractive many of the young black women are.
I'm now still in the classroom but at the very bottom of a large gorge, looking up to the lecturer who I've become fascinated with but I only experience as an almost disembodied very deep voice. I get a sense of deep wisdom but don't understand any of the words.
I'm, I'm looking from below a large stone wall that I'm considering sitting on.There's a woman next to me, very attractive black woman. She is professionally dressed, older She looks like she could be a partner in a law firm.
I make my way up a steep hill over the stone wall and onto a balcony that looks like it might be outdoor seating for a restaurant. The whole time. I'm getting a better view of the lecturer who appears to be an old black man perched in the branches of a very large tree. He has a large wide brim hat.
As I am finding my seat I see that many other people are doing the same thing I'm doing and getting closer and closer and filling that space next to him.
I am now very excited about the course content. I'm talking to one of the teacher's aides after the lecsure. We're going to some detail about what it is goning take me to catch up because I missed the first class or 2. He says essentially I just need to do some reading. Then the teacher's aid asked me if I can help and I see that there's a mess on the floor and I said do you need me to mop? I'm very good at mopping.
I am now at a small gathering of students after the class out side. A young black woman (same one I noticed before?) has something that was used in the lecture. It's 3 or more feet long and a couple of feet wide. It looks like a giant piece of steak. When I touch it, however, it's very light weight and it's obviously a plastic version of steak used likely as a stage prop. We are discussing the prop and I volunteer to take it back although no one is clear on where it came from. I say I've parked all the way across campus. And between the drama department and some others I should be able to find a home for it.
I'm rustling with the bag of meat in my preparation to walk across campus and Patty, and John Cogswell come over and she points out that I need to flip the bag over. I've been struggling with something that is now attached to the bag, which is mechanical and has something to do with the way you zip it up and store it.
I'm still incredibly enthusiastic about the next opportunity to join the class even after I have woken up and gone back to sleep. I still don't seem to realize it's a dream.
I am now speaking with 2 black women. One is more mature than others and is with a young student. They could be mother and daughter. The daughter is talking to her mother and is not sure if she should tell me something, and she's consulting with her mother. When she finally tells me it's that when she first saw me, she thought I was a nerd. My emotional response is to embrace that and actually enjoy it.
Notes: Even before I write down the dream and formally try to interpret it I am getting lots of ideas. The first is that I've long wanted to be more immersed in black culture. The only way I've experienced that is in bars and it would be nice to do something similar to it in a more intellectual environment.
The next obvious association is my general thirst for knowledge.
I'm also reminder of my early experience with black people. My first recolection of seeing a black person when we moved to Washington DC. It was literally like something from outer space or another dimension.
I also remember the maid in my cousin's house, Elsie, who lived in a tiny room in the basement. I need to ask my cousin Mimi if there was a window of that room.I don't remember one,
A call to action is to immerse myself or at least experience being the only white person in a room, but where the idea is intellectual no just drinking or music or religion.
Synchronistically, I just read a article about a senior black physicist (Walter E. Massey) who started in Mississippi and had a whole ark to his career that included running universities and being on boards like McDonald's.
I was excited to take this dream to dream group then I realized it would be mostly egotistically. What the dream is telling me is pretty obvious or at least there's a lot of leads so I don't really need someone else's interpretation to get benefit from the dream.
My biggest observation is how detailed and complex the dream was. How I remembered multiple segments easily. I told myself cause it's been a while since I've had marijuana and I need to continue that. (Less than a week)
A I was thinking about the wise man in the tree I recalled a childhood poem, had to look it up in Childcraft. The Quangle Wangle's Hat by Edward Lear
