Dream
Symbol
My father drove the car. I was sitting in the back seat with my niece,
Ilona. The traffic on the road was even and the scenery very boring
and monotonous. It was a grey, cloudy day. Approaching a bridge, our
car was about to slide too much to the right. My father's eyes were
closed. "Look out! A bridge!" I shouted, grasping the steering
wheel and turning it to the left so that we barely avoided colliding
to the flyover. My father was awake again.
At
my parents' I was walking in the garden. This was a big grass field,
on the edges of which there grew cypress trees, like in Italy. The
sun was shining and the atmosphere was very peaceful. I didn't recognize
the greenery as my parents' garden. It crossed my mind that this could
be a dream. I decided to make a reality test by trying to rise up
in the air.
My
mother stood on the other end of the garden. It was easy for me to
get off the ground. At the height of three metres I enthousiastically
shouted at my mum, "Hey! We're in a dream world!" I got
so excited of the possibilities offered by the dream state that I
somersaulted in the air and did all kinds of tricks, until the effort
exhausted my energy and I was back on the ground again.
I
knew that even if I was back on the solid ground, this was still a
dream. I could get the things I wanted right in front of me, but I
couldn't decide what I wanted. It was enough to let things happen
without trying to direct the reality in any particular direction.
Why should I want anything, anyway? These were mere phantasms and,
even if I conjured something in front of me, I was still in the dream
world.
Having
rested well, I went to have breakfast. I noticed that instead of the
Italian garden the scenery had changed into a more Finnish one. I
could see grey pine trees through the kitchen window. I told my folks
about my dream. I asked whether it was symbolic that I intervened
in my father's driving and prevented him from colliding to a bridge?
My
sister thought it was a clear symbol. According to her, our father
lacked a degree of societal responsibility. He had always participated
in public life and enjoyed being in a position where he could direct
people's actions towards common good. Now, retired, all his time was
spent in gardening, making it impossible to participate in the community
work. The dream meant that he should be encouraged to do things that
truly interested him. If necessary, he should be re-directed back
to his course, so to speak, as I had done by grasping the wheel.
My
father listened to the analysis, slightly irritated. He said there
were no grounds for worrying. Today's work in the garden was already
done, and even now he was on his way to a Rotary meeting.
