washing an elephant

8/8/2019 Washing an Elephant

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Over the course of my life, I have recorded twenty-sevendreams in which elephants have appeared. Their

mysterious message tends to uplift me.


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Dream of: 02 December 1981 "Plastic Elephant"I was in a house which reminded me of the House in

Patriot (the home of my maternal grandparents when Iwas a child, in the small village of Patriot in hill-cradledGallia County, southeastern Ohio). I wanted to take a

bus to the Gallia County Farmhouse(the two-storyframe house which sits on the Gallia County Farm of my

paternal step-grandfather Clarence and my paternal

grandmother Mabel ) and I was trying to find the phonenumber of the bus station in Chillicothe, Ohio. Icouldn't remember the number for information, so Isimply dialed "0" and the operator came on the line.

When I asked her the number for the bus station, shecouldn't seem to find it, but she told me the bus ticket

would cost a little over five dollars. I still wanted thephone number of the bus station because I wanted tofind out what time the bus was leaving. I thought I

would first have to take a bus to Chillicothe and travelfrom there to Gallipolis(the Gallia-county town of mybirth). Then I would have Clarence and Mabel come to

Gallipolis to fetch me.It was already about 4:30 p.m. and I didn't know

whether I would have enough time to get there. Theoperator seemed to be taking a very long time. I must
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have waited 10 minutes on the phone, but she simplycouldn't find the number. When I finally asked her if I

could call back and talk to another operator, sheresponded, "Yes".I hung up. My mother was standing at the kitchen sinkwashing dishes. I looked through the back window over

the sink and noticed the view was of the Swiver'shouse across the street instead of into the back yard.

Suddenly I saw what appeared to be a falling starexcept it rose from the ground into the air and thenfell back to the ground again. I didn't know what tothink. I couldn't imagine what it could have been.The sky began filling up with what appeared to bebombs, blasts and fireworks. Had a war begun? My

mother was suddenly convinced atomic bombs werebeing dropped. I said, "No. There wouldn't be thatmany of them. If there were a war it wouldn't be like

that."I still couldn't figure out what was going on. I walkedoutside; several people were in the road. A person waswalking toward me from the direction of the blasts; Iasked him what had happened and he said a plane had

crashed.By now only one large billow of smoke was rising from
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one spot. I thought, "The plane must have had somearmaments on it or something."

After walking back into the house, I decided I wantedto go and see the crash. I got my brother Chris (crippled with muscular dystrophy) and my uncle George

(my mother's brother, crippled with polio) and putthem into a little red car. Some other fellows from the

neighborhood also boarded the car. Even though the

car was mine, I climbed into the back seat and letsomebody else drive. We took off down the road.We rode for a while until I finally decided to drive. Iexchanged places with the driver and began driving.George, sitting next to me on my right, was crowding

me so much I could barely drive. My leg also seemed to

be going numb. Suddenly George started shaking andappeared to be having an epileptic fit. Then he begansinging loudly.

When we reached a place which reminded me ofShawnee State Forest (in southern Ohio), the road

turned into a dirt road and I continued down it. I sawsome guard rails and when I finally spotted some

parked cars, I thought we must be getting close to thecrash site. I pulled up behind some cars and parked. I

suddenly realized Chris and George weren't going to be
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able to go and see the wreck since they were bothcrippled. I was going to have to leave them in the car.

The rest of us got out and headed in the direction ofthe plane which was still a ways back in the woods. Aswe started walking, we found other roads in the woodsand I realized we could have probably driven closer had

I known the roads were there. We walked down dirtroads and even walked on one concrete road.

When we reached the crash site, the fire was no longerburning. I walked over to the plane and stepped insidewhich was very white inside. The hull of the plane(broken in places) looked as if it were six or seven

centimeters thick. It was even difficult to tell it was aplane. The hull resembled Styrofoam except it was

hard like cement.As I walked into one little room of the plane which wascompletely empty, I thought, "Well, everything has

been burned out."I walked into another room about the same except inthis room a black man was on top of what appeared to

be an old freezer which he was trying to open. Hepounded on it until it finally opened.

My father was also there. He and I both looked intothe freezer. In the section in which we were looking it
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looked as if nothing were there. But my father reachedinside and said, "Well here's a gun."

He pulled out an old gun which looked as if it had beenburned up. At first I thought the gun was real, butwhen I looked at it more closely, I discovered it to be a

small, gray, plastic, squirt gun.I looked into another section of the freezer and sawthings which hadn't been burned. There were some

paper sacks which the black man began going through.There was also some cloth which looked like darningmaterial. I thought the sacks had probably belonged to

the stewardesses who were all dead now.It looked as if the black man was going to take some ofthe things. When a crowd began gathering around the

box, I thought, "These people are actually going tostart taking this stuff."A couple sacks had some nice women's shoes in them.One woman in the crowd said the shoes probably cost

about $35 and she began going through the sack. Ithought, "Well they're just going to take all that

stuff."Apparently it was all right for them to take it, but I

didn't want anything. I foraged about in the box a bitand saw a long slender leather satchel. I pulled it out
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and unzipped it. Inside I found a pretty, stringedinstrument. I thought it was a mandolin. I plucked a

few of the strings; it sounded great. Other peoplewere looking at it. I put the instrument back into thesatchel, zipped it up and thought, "Well I'm just going

to keep this myself."I walked off into another room of the plane where Ifound some little statues sitting on a table, including

many intricately carved ivory statues. I put some in mypocket. Then I found some larger statues. I thought,"I'll get this for my mother."

I also thought I would give one to Chris and some toother people. As I began rounding up statues which I

could give to people, I looked around for a box in which

to put the statues. I found a little box and put thestatues in it.I next found a long wooden frame designed to holdplants. It was filled with flowers. It was about tencentimeters wide and two meters long. Carved ivory

elephants were attached to the edges of the frame. Ithought, "Well somebody will even take that

eventually."Inside the frame, sitting in the flowers I foundanother carved elephant. I picked it up; it also
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appeared to be made of ivory. I thought perhaps Iwould take it. But I looked closer and saw it was

actually made of plastic so I put it back.After looking around and taking a few more things, Iwalked into another room which had hard wood on theflooring, walls and ceiling which hadn't been burned. Itwas completely empty but it appeared perfectly normal.I said, "But why is it that none of this stuff has been

burned out if this plane burned up?"Then I thought, "Because this is a dream. I'm dreamingnow."

That satisfied me so I continued looking at things.My father and I finally decided to leave. So many

people were now flocking in, the crowd was becoming

oppressive. Everyone was trying to get as much as theycould. I thought that they were all scavengers and thatI myself was a scavenger, but I thought everything we

were doing was perfectly legal.We began thinking since so many people were now

coming in, some policemen would probably soon appear.Thinking the police might even try to take the stuffaway from us, we decided to circle over top of a hill

and then come down by our car from the other side sonobody would see us.

Where in this world of woe is left a place for elephants?
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Such magnificently spiritual animals, they have becomelittle more than a curiosity. I feel guilty of their plight.

Dream of: 17 January 1982 "At the Zoo"Katherine (a fellow law student at Baylor Law School in

Waco, Texas, with whom I had a short romanticinterlude) and I had gone to a zoo together. We walked

through the bird section and came upon a cageharboring a colorful blue bird. First the bird would walk

backwards in the cage, then walked forward to thefront and chirp. A couple other birds were also in thecage. We walked on over the sawdust-covered ground

and saw other birds in cages. The birds seemedfriendly and the tails of some stood up when they

cooed. Finally we came to a turnstile where we had topay and we exited the bird section.

We came to the elephant section. One elephant begansucking my hand and at one point two baby elephants

charged at me. The right tusk of one of the smallelephants was broken off. I mounted an elephant thatwas a darker gray color than the smaller ones. It had

both its tusks. As I rode the elephant, I was wearing acowboy hat, and I held my left hand under my butt. I

did an excellent job of riding and when I finished I slidgracefully off its head.

On the other side of the section I saw some pink
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caskets and I wished I had my camera so I could takepictures.

We continued on to the monkey and ape section wherea gorilla charged at me. As Katherine and I walkedalong she kept holding on to my arm. When I broke

away from her, she cried out loudly.When we reached a lounge area, we sat down on acouch. Katherine began talking and threatened to

publish some kind of agreement I had made with herconcerning a pair of Levi pants I had given her whichhad shrunk. I told her I would have her expelled fromlaw school. WhenHaim(another fellow law student)showed up, I began explaining the agreement to him.

He said something about my having been a nice guy for

having given the pants to Katherine. I agreed.Donna(another law student) was sitting on the otherside of the room, while a pretty black-haired girl I hadseen at law school was sitting next to Katherine. When

Katherine finally left, the girl said some funnysarcastic things about the agreement.

I joined back up with Katherine and we lay downtogether on a park bench. She moved ever closer to meand I told her to put her breast in my mouth. A woman

nearby (who seemed to be a law student) began
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screaming. Katherine wanted to leave. I refused atfirst but finally gave in.

When I told Katherine I wasn't going to see heranymore, she became quite upset. I wanted to tell herthat if she would simply lose 50 pounds, I would seeher again, but I didn't know exactly how to say it.

Being overweight was obviously her problem.Another woman, who had overhead me talking to

Katherine, said something to Katharine. I asked thewoman if she would accompany Katherine home, and asthey talked, I slipped away. I walked back to where thegorillas and elephants were. I felt sorry for the larger

elephants being in stalls. Imagination. How vast, how huge as an elephant is the

power of imagination. Yet how neglected by most people,including myself.

Dream of: 18 January 1982 "Ghost Story"Birdie (my girlfriend when I was a teenager) and I

stopped by the home of Walls and his wife Connie (twoother friends from my teenage years) in Portsmouth,

Ohio (my hometown when I was a teenager). After

Birdie and I walked into the living room, I sat on thefar right side of the couch and Birdie sat to my left.Another couple was lying down on the couch on the

other side of Birdie.
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When I saw Buckner (another teenage friend) in theroom, I rose and said, "Buckner, I have a treat for

you."I had intended to read him some dreams in which hehad appeared (just as I had recently read some dreamsto Walls in which Walls had appeared), but then I said,

"Oh crap, I don't have them with me. They're not inthe car."

I told Buckner I dreamed the night before that I hadbeen bronco riding an elephant . He said that would bedifficult because an elephant was so large. I told him

the elephant had only come up to my waist.Two fellows whom I didn't know stopped by and Walls

walked into the kitchen with them. I heard Walls say to

one, "Bet you fellows are in need of some grass."The fellow replied, "No, I have four or five which willlast me till Monday."

After they talked for a while, the fellow decidedperhaps he ought to get more marijuana from Walls.

Walls said, "Well, why don't I just give you the key tothe compound and you can go get it yourself."

I walked into the next room for a moment. When Ireturned, Birdie was sitting where I had been sitting. I

said something to her about it and then I sat down
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where she had been sitting. The reason Birdie hadshifted places was soon apparent: the girl lying on the

couch had been crowding Birdie. The girl kept touchingme with her legs until I shoved her legs away from me acouple times. The girl finally got the message and

stopped.The guy and girl on the couch finally left. Birdie also

wanted to leave but I wanted to stay longer. So Birdie

shifted back over to the other side of me, lay down andfell asleep. She had seemed very withdrawn and Ihadn't heard her speak with anyone.

Apparently Walls had cable television and a show called"Ghost Story" was just going off. The words sounded

like poetry as they flashed across the television.

Birdie awoke and said we had to leave. Several othercouples were now in the room. Birdie stood and walkedout the door without saying anything to anybody. I

knew she couldn't get into the car because I had thekeys. When I likewise rose, Buckner walked over to me.I had hardly spoken to him before. We stood next to alarge Christmas tree and I just looked at him for about15 seconds, unable to think of what I wanted to say to

him. Finally I said, "Steve, what are you doing now."Holding a drink in his hand, he looked sheepish and


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replied, "Nothing."He said he lived in Columbus, Ohio. I surmised that his

parents were supplying him with money. He continued,"Oh in the day I read a lot. And at nights I party."I visualized his life and thought how dismal it would be

to party every night.When Birdie walked back in, I walked over to her. She

grabbed my arm and said, "Let's go."

I quickly told Buckner that if I were still in town thenext day I would call him. As Birdie and I began toleave, I said good-bye to Walls and Connie.

I felt guilty about having kept Birdie out so late and Ibegan wondering about her husband. Should I take her

home myself or should I send her in a cab? I didn't

even know where she lived. I seem to need my imagination to piece together thebroken shards of my life. Recurring images, such as thoseof elephants, seem to have some meaning to which I cling

for solace.Dream of: 21 December 1983 "Hindu Marriage"

I was with Terrell (a Waco lawyer) in the Law Office in

Waco (where I worked during my last year of lawschool). He was preparing to go somewhere to researcha case and I asked if I could accompany him. He said I

could and we left.
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He told me he was going to the train station to pick upa parcel (which had something to do with his case) from

UPS. He needed to find out what was written on aparticular document.As we arrived at the train station, the train carrying

his parcel pulled up, but it continued to move along thetrack and didn't seem to be stopping. The train was

going so slow, I thought perhaps we should simply hop

aboard.When the train finally stopped, we saw a freight carwith "UPS" written on the side, boarded the train andwalked into the UPS car which was filled with mail. Aswe walked around amidst the bundles and packages ofmail, Terrell pointed to one bundle and said, "Well we

need to start going through this bundle. Throw thepackages over here in this bin and go through them andlook for the address of Vail."

I began picking up packages and throwing them into thebin. Terrell did the same. The train began moving and

was soon going full speed as we continued lookingthrough the bundles of mail. I thought our activity was

an interesting aspect of legal research. Quiteimpressed by Terrell's conduct of the investigation , Isaid, "Well, you certainly do know some tricks of the


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trade, don't you."When I finally spotted a package which said "Vail" on

it, I pointed it out to Terrell. He came over and openedit. It contained many sheets of paper which were allthe same. On the front of each sheet was a picture of

an elephant .Terrell began reading some writing which was also oneach sheet. The writing was about a girl named Pam

Brown. It occurred to me that I didn't know the nameof Terrell's client.The sheet said Pam Brown was going to marry in a fewdays. The marriage was to be a Hindu type marriage

and the papers were invitations to the wedding.The papers described some of the events to occur at

the wedding. It interested me. The papers said, "Youare all invited."Apparently the sheet was going to be printed in amagazine and the public was going to be invited. Ithought perhaps I would go and take Louise(mygirlfriend, a law student at Baylor Law School).

I fancy that in my dreams, elephants represent myimagination. Applying this fancy, the elephant dreams

become immensely more enjoyable and understandable.Dream of: 25 December 1985 "Rented Elephants"I had rented two elephants , a baby one and another
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large young one, with the intention of riding the largeone from the House in Patriot to Mexico. Although the

House was the same as the one in Patriot, Ohio, it wasnow located in the vicinity of Austin, Texas. I thoughtthe trip would take about two or three days.

I took the two elephants behind House and since theyhadn't had anything to drink all day, I carried them abucket of water. I didn't have anything to feed them

except some pop corn, some of which I gave them. Iwas surprised to see them eat it. I carried them moremilk and I wondered if they would drink milk. The

larger one was very thirsty.Somehow the smaller elephant climbed unto the largerelephant's back, then suddenly tumbled off. I caught it

and set it back on the ground. It only weighed about25-30 kilograms.After I had taken my eyes off the elephants for awhile, I looked back I saw the larger elephant had

crossed over into a cornfield of the neighbor, BobbySaunders (a farmer who lived next door to the House in

Patriot when I was a child). I walked down to theelephant and brought it back into the back yard. It laydown and I carried some grass over to it, but it didn'twant it. Instead it raked its nose over some tall grass
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growing near it and began eating it.I began having doubts about the entire endeavor of

riding the larger elephant to Mexico. Would theelephant be disturbed by the traffic and by horns? Ididn't have a seat to put on the elephant and I didn't

know how I was going to climb up on it. The idea ofriding the elephant to Mexico seemed less and less

attractive. I also began to realize the trip to Mexico

and back would require more than three days, and Ihad only rented the elephant for three days.When I again looked toward the elephant, it had

disappeared. Someone nearby pointed out the elephantonce again in the Saunders field, this time in a patch of

sugarcane. I was upset because Saunders had such

good crops and I figured he would be angry becausethe elephant was ruining them. I then noticed a manhitting the elephant with a stick trying to drive it outof the field. I ran down and guided the elephant once

again back to the yard.I looked into Saunders field and noticed a garden there

in which a number of different kinds of vegetableswere growing. I wondered if Saunders sometimes grewmore than he could eat and took the surplus to town to

sell. I thought he would then be able to feel as if he


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were helping the community.I was afraid the elephant was going to go into the

garden and walk on it. When I found a piece of cabbagelying in the yard, I was at first afraid my elephant hadtrampled the cabbage, but then I noticed the cabbage

apparently was no good and I thought Saunders hadprobably thrown it away.

Looking at the garden I was impressed by what a good

job Saunders had done and I wished I had the abilityto raise a garden. The land on which the House inPatriot sat contained mostly scrub, while Saunders'land seemed productive and full of good food. Some

space still was left over next to the fence onSaunders' side and I thought there was still room for

some more corn to be planted if Saunders wanted to.I thought Saunders had probably worked hard at usingthe right fertilizer on his land. I noticed one patch of

extremely black dirt and when I looked at it moreclosely, I realized the dirt consisted of dry

decomposed raspberries. I picked up one of theraspberries and touched my tongue with it. I couldbarely taste the flavor of raspberry. I wondered if

Saunders had grown raspberries there before and thenhad put them back to enrich the soil.

It would seem that even the imagination is restricted by


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rules. The imagination is confined to those images whichwe have experienced.

Dream of: 04 June 1987 (4) "Washing Elephants"I was walking with my old friend Weinstein , whom I was

visiting in New York City. We had left the street andhad begun ascending the stairs of a tall building. As we

climbed, Weinstein talked of a previous time I hadvisited him in New York. I remembered the occasion

about which he was talking, but my memory wasextremely hazy.

Weinstein appeared apologetic about the way he hadtreated me the previous time. Although I had come tovisit him that time, he had spent very little time with

me and had left me to go somewhere else withoutinviting me. As he talked, I remembered what had

happened. I hadn't been upset with him at the timebecause I had figured he had simply been busy andpreoccupied with matters about which I knew very

little. I did remember that I had arrived on a Fridayand that I had left fairly soon thereafter, probably

Sunday, because I had perceived that Weinstein was soengaged with his other business.

What was interesting though, was hearing Weinsteintalk about how the weekend I had been there had been

one of deep importance in his life. And he seemed to
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think that although I hadn't been with him, mypresence in New York had had an influence on him and

on the events of the weekend. He then begandescribing the weekend and its impact on his life.I was quite interested in what he was saying, but I

didn't retain most of it. As well as I could tell, he hadspent the time meeting a number of spiritually bizarre,

but impressive, people. I seemed to be able to

somewhat visualize some of them as he describedthem, but the images were dim.It did seem that one thing Weinstein had learned wasthat his relationship with me was more significant thanhe had previously thought. Now, although we weren't

communicating perfectly, he seemed to be making more

effort to do so and he seemed more at ease with mypresence. He seemed more aware of my feeling offriendship toward him and more inclined to accept it.

As we continued ascending the building and hecontinued talking, I began to realize that something

had happened to Weinstein in this building the previoustime I had been in town and that Weinstein now wanted

to show it to me. Finally we came out on the black,tarred roof of the building. The building was tall,

perhaps one of the tallest in New York, but the area on


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the roof was rather small, about the size of an averageroom, and there were no railings along the edges. I

immediately became uncomfortable.Weinstein had become quite animated and seemedcompletely unaffected by the height of the building.

When his conversation turned to the "atomsmasher", Islowly realized he was referring to the building, inside

of which apparently was some highly developed

scientific machinery used for smashing atoms. In factI seemed to feel the building vibrating to a certainextent and I felt quite queasy and apprehensive.Weinstein however appeared self-confident. He

pointed out that the previous time I had been there,part of the difficulty between him and me had been my

reluctance to climb atop the atomsmasher as I was nowdoing. He asked me if I was now ready to raise myhands in the air and wiggle them over my head. I knewthat such a gesture was in line with our being atop the

atomsmasher and indeed I felt as if I might do it;however I was still not thoroughly comfortable with

the height.In fact I finally had to sit, almost lie down, on the roof

to ease my anxiety. Weinstein continued talking andspoke of the differences and significances of looking


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up at buildings from below and looking down from atopthem. I told him I wasn't afraid of looking up, but I did

have some problem with looking down.***Weinstein and I were walking along together in a parkin which we had just arrived. It looked as if Weinsteinand I were both just wearing a pair of cut off shortsand we didn't have on any shirts. We passed a row of

perhaps 20 men and women (probably in their early30s) who were jogging and seemed quite healthy. Theywere all wearing new clean shirts and tops. All theirclothes had thick stripes on a white background, andeach person's stripes seemed to be of a different

color. Their clothes looked comfortable, and I

somewhat wished I had some like them. But at thesame time, I was unsure I would want to wear the sameclothes everyone else was wearing and jog along in a

group like that.Nearby in a shallow pool were several elephants andsitting atop them were young black boys splashing

water on the elephants and washing them. It lookedlike such an extremely pleasant thing to do, and of

everything I had seen in New York, I thought that waswhat I would most like to do: I would like to be sitting
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just as the young black boys were, atop the elephants.The boys appeared to be nude and I couldn't tell for

sure if they were wearing shorts. I thought how good itwould feel to be young and nude on the elephants, tofeel my testes and my legs rubbing against the skin of

the elephants. I wanted so much to join them.While I was standing by a pool of water in the park, alarge hippopotamus came to the edge and placed its

mouth around the bottom part of my left leg. It wasn'tclamping down and causing me any pain, but I realizedthe strength of its jaws was such that it could crush

my leg if it wanted. So although I rather enjoyedhaving my leg in the hippo's mouth, I was quite

apprehensive and wanted to remove it. When I called to

Weinstein and pointed out my predicament, he seemedto think it peculiar, but he didn't seem alarmed.As Weinstein and I walked on through the park, he

began talking about my physique, "Collier, you're in theprime of your life."

He then became slightly critical, although not abrasive,about my not building up my body, and he seemed to

want to compare my body with his, which was inexcellent shape. I had lost some weight since the lasttime I had seen him, but I had added little muscle to


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my body. He pointed at my stomach and said somethingabout my pants just hanging on me. He then said

something about a red line around my stomach and Inoticed somewhat of a crease there.***

I found Weinstein standing inside a small booth in thepark, practicing what appeared to be some kind of

exercise which I had never seen before. Hanging from

the ceiling of the booth was a string which held amirror about head-high. In the booth next to the oneWeinstein was in was a similar arrangement, except themirror in the next booth was perhaps 30 centimeters

square while the one in Weinstein's booth was onlyabout 15 centimeters square.

Weinstein seemed to be totally absorbed in practicingwith the mirror. As well as I could tell, the exerciseconsisted simply of hitting the mirror in such a way

that it would move as much as possible and still not bebroken by the blow. Weinstein held what appeared tobe small pieces of cardboard in his hands and hit themirror with the cardboard. Obviously Weinstein hadhad considerable experience in practicing with the

mirror and he seemed quite adept at making it twirl andmove around without breaking. I was unsure I could
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actually see the practicality of what he was doing, butI thought the exercise might help develop ability at

martial defense.A similar arrangement was in the booth left ofWeinstein's, except that instead of a mirror, a green

tennis ball was tied to the string. I thought hitting thetennis ball would be more to my liking and I decided toexercise with that. Before I began, however, I wanted

Weinstein to try to hit the tennis ball. I turned to himand said, "OK now hit this ball."He stepped into to the booth and the tennis ball was

put in motion. Weinstein had difficulty hitting the ball;he could barely connect with the ball as it swung back

and forth. Weinstein still had the small pieces of

cardboard in his hands and he tried to hit the ball withthem, but his swings lacked force and his motionsseemed like those of a very small child. I said, "Is that

the way you're going to hit it when you fight?"I didn't think he really had the idea of what it meantto fight. I knew I would be fairly good at exercising

with the ball. I thought part of my ability would derivefrom my having developed my awareness. I stepped up

to the booth, prepared to begin hitting the ball andsaid, "OK, now watch this."

I have often neglected my imagination, and although


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aware of the importance of my imagination, I havenevertheless become domiciled in the world of reality.

Dream of: 23 June 1988 "Elephant House"I was observing an elephant run around what appearedto be a large living room. Some objects which looked

like tree-limbs were sticking out the tops of the walls,and the elephant grabbed the limbs with its trunk as itpassed by them. The elephant also climbed up on somefurniture and stuck its head through some holes in the

walls.Finally the elephant's owner walked in and began

talking about the elephant. The elephant had been in anold house when the owner had first acquired it. Then

the owner had brought the elephant to this place.When the elephant first arrived, a stuffed moose's

head had hung on the wall. Left alone alone in the roomfor a while, the elephant had pulled the moose head

from the wall, leaving a hole in the wall. The elephanthad then stuck its head through the wall. A second

elephant was in the room on the other side of the walland the two elephants had thus been able to

communicate.Thus the owner had learned that the elephant needed

holes in the walls through which to stick its to see whatwas going on in the other rooms. The owner had also


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learned that the elephant needed the limbs to grab asit ran along. Thus with the limbs and the holes in the

walls, the elephant had learned (with some degree ofsuccess) to adapt to living in the room. Reality is often a cruel home for the imagination.

Dream of: 16 March 1990 (3) "SPCA"I had gone to a house on top of a hill. The house wassupposed to be famous because, back in the hippie

days, many parties had been held there. When I walkedin the door I saw a picture of a fellow wearing a tee

shirt with the word "Sunny" written across the front .Apparently "Sunny" was the fellow's name. A group ofpeople in the house were standing around some kind ofwriting which contained the words "Where has all theivory gone?" There were also some little statues whichwere either made of ivory or had ivory inlaid in them.

There was even a little statue of an elephant . Thepeople were apparently bemoaning the fact that they

could no longer obtain ivory because of theinternational ban on the sale of ivory.

I began thinking of the initials of the Society for thePrevention of Cruelty to Animals SPCA. I thought

about how involved the people in that organization mustbe and how much time they must devote to the

organization.
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Working in the real world, I have often ignored myimagination.

Dream of: 23 June 1991 "Carved Ivory"I had gone to a public market where I was searchingfor a small elephant tusk so I could have something

carved out of it for me. I began looking through a binwhich contained various items to see if I could find any

ivory. I was looking for a piece about a centimeter indiameter and about 30 centimeters long. I already had

about 10 pieces about half that size, and for somereason I thought my pieces were also in the bin. Butwhen I began looking for them amongst the junk, I

couldn't find them.When I finally saw Daffin (a female Houston attorney)also looking through the bin, I thought she might workthere. She was standing to my right and I asked her if

she had any ivory. She seemed happy to see me andpressed herself tight under my right arm. We were soclose that at one point a suction was created under my

arm and when we moved apart a bit, a popping soundwas made, which slightly embarrassed me.

She didn't seem to understand exactly what I meant,but nevertheless she said she did have some ivory. She

extracted a key chain with keys on it from the bin.Something on the key chain was wrapped in green tin


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foil and she began taking off the tin foil. I thought itmust be a piece of ivory, but when she was finished, I

saw it was some kind of metal medallion instead. I triedto explain that that wasn't what I was looking for, andonce again I began looking for the 10 pieces of ivory

which I had brought with me. Finally I saw them in myblack suitcase which I had laid over the bin. I felt

relieved to find them.

I continued trying to explain to Daffin what I waslooking for. Nearby another woman appeared to becarving something in a piece of ivory. I thought I wouldpoint out the woman to Daffin. I began thinking of howintricate carvings could be in the ivory. I even picturedsmall metal screws being drilled through the ivory to

hold it in place. Actually I just wanted a piece carvedwhich I could put on my key chain. Although my imagination suffered from neglect, I

remained aware of its plight.Dream of: 16 July 1991 "Plight of Animals"

I had been watching a vast migration of animals,perhaps all the animals in the world. The animals weregrouped together plodding along a long trail, until they

broke into a run, and in an incredible sight, beganstampeding. I was unsure where they were going. Some

were trampled, and some became turned around and


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went the wrong way. I didn't know what it was allabout, but I was amazed to see so many animals

grouped together. I particularly noticed many camelsand elephants in the herd.Two other fellows were with me, and together we weremarching along, trying to get out of the area. Ahead ofus we saw a group of Latin American soldiers dressed in

green army fatigues. Since remaining where we were

was dangerous, we would have to pass the soldiers. Aswe walked past them, we realized the soldiers had beenordered to give us safe passage because we wereAmericans, and Americans were allied with these

particular soldiers. As we passed I thought we were inthe southern United States. If we had been in the

northern United States we could have reached wherewe wanted to go without having to pass the soldiers,which were only found in the southern United States.As we passed I noticed a group of elephants nearbyand suddenly I realized the soldiers were planning tokill the elephants. I was bothered by the fact, butknew there was nothing I could do about it at the

moment.***

When we had finally reached a safe spot, we began


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trying to see the animals through a powerfulinstrument similar to a telescope through which one

could see objects at a distance. The instrument hadbeen built by one of the fellows with me, and wethought if we could perfect its use, it might be able tohelp with the plight of the animals. The fellow had beentrying to put a grid on the instrument by marking small

vertical lines along the bottom, and small horizontal

lines along the left side of the view-piece. I beganhelping him with the project, and wondered how wewere going to be able to use the grid.

I looked through the telescope several times and couldsee that he had been making progress, however

laborious, with the little marks. As he and I talked

about the project, the second fellow voiced a skepticalopinion that he didn't think the grid would be of anybenefit.

I knew the idea was to ultimately take a picture ofsomething at a distance, blow up the picture, and thenpinpoint something on the picture. However when thefellow had begun making the marks for the grid, hehadn't known exactly what he was doing and he still

didn't know. In fact he had originally begun making oneset of marks, then had changed and begun using a


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second set of marks mixed in with the first set. Irealized that he had a good idea and that he had

already spent much time making the marks, but Ithought it might be necessary to begin the projectover from the beginning.

Finally I realized exactly what the problem was: thereneeded to be a definite number of marks going acrossthe bottom and a definite number of marks along the

side. I concluded that the number should be 1,000marks across the bottom and 1,000 marks along theside. With such a grid of coordinates, the location ofany point on the picture could be found. I was quite

excited because I now knew how the grid could work,even though I also knew the other fellow might be

disappointed because we would have to start all over. Iwanted to make the point to him that he would have toabandon all the work he had already done in order to

perfect the new grid. I hesitated to dedicate myself to my imagination.

Dream of: 30 September 1992 "Washing anElephant"

While on the Farm (of my paternal step-grandfatherClarence and my paternal grandmother Mabel in Gallia

County, Ohio), I discovered a young elephant livingthere. It stood about two meters tall. Another person
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I quickly saw Mabel (about 50 years old) was extremelyangry with me about something. By the time we

reached the Farmhouse, it was clear she didn't wantme to be there. I told her that I would leave, and alsothat this was the last time she would ever see me,

because I would never return.***

My wife Carolinaand I were in a car which I was

driving away from the Farmhouse. I soon realized theroads were beginning to be covered by water fromrecent rains. I hurried along hoping not to be stranded

in the water.We continued until we reached what appeared to be a

German town. We got out of the car and began climbing

a steep hill in the town. I was delighted at the thoughtof being in Germany. All art is dependent on the imagination. Yet the concept of

the imagination is so vague and diffuse, it defiesconceptualization.

Dream of: 16 October 1993 "Omisdon"I was in an outdoor area where a fair appeared to be

taking place. My first cousin Jimmy (son of mymother's brother) was sitting and playing poker at a

nearby table. I recalled having played cards withJimmy before, but I hadn't realized he was well-versed
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in card playing.I could see the cards in his hand; he hadn't put them in

order according to suit or number. The cards weresimply mixed up in his hand. Since he knew so muchabout card playing, it seemed odd that he wouldn't put

the cards in order.My father was sitting nearby in a chair at a table. Iwalked up to him and saw one chair next to him and

another chair on the other side of the table. Sincesomething appeared to be in the chair next to myfather, I walked around to the chair on the other side

of the table. However, I didn't sit down. Instead Ibegan looking at a number of large thick art books lyingon the table. The books were for sale for $51 each. I

had the feeling someone had paid $50 apiece for thebooks and was just making a profit of $1 on each.I thought I might be interested in buying one, eventhough my money was rather tight at the moment. I

looked through the books, one of which appeared to beabout Rembrandt. I picked up one book almost eight

centimeters thick. Starting in the middle of the book,I leafed toward the front. I saw a large close-uppicture of elephants either sculpted or painted onwalls. The picture covered both pages of the book.
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I leafed on, saw some maps and realized the book wasabout the art of a specific region. On one map a line

meandered down through cities in France and ended upin a city in Spain (which seemed to be in Africa). Themeandering line represented journeys people had taken

through history traveling from France to Spain. Anarticle describing the art of that city interested mebecause the city somehow seemed significant to me

personally. It occurred to me that I had never studiedthis particular region, which also appeared to havehistorical importance. It was interesting that the olderI became, the more I learned about obscure places andthings. It occurred to me that if I were to study these

obscure places with a younger person, then that

person's development would be different from mine,since I had never studied the places when I had been young.

I would like to learn more of the history of thisparticular area. It seemed as if I already knew

something about most of the cities on the meanderingline, but I felt as if I needed to know something aboutthe area where the line finally ended. It looked as if

the name of the city where the line ended was"Omisdon".

Although my power of imagination improved, I was
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continually beset by distracting forces.Dream of: 27 July 1995 (2) "Animal Sanctuary"

I was in a car which my father was driving on a countryroad in Gallia County, Ohio, headed to a farm where Iwas going to begin working. A farmer had decided to

hire me to work on the farm, and although I wasinexperienced with farm-work, I was a hard worker and

I would be able to do the work well.The scenery we passed was picturesque. Large round

bales of hay lay in one field along the side of the road.I kept my eyes on the hay after we drove past, and Inoticed one bale had rolled into the road behind us.

I had never been to the farm where we were headed,but I had a map to show me the way. On the map I

could see the farm was at the end of a dead end roadin an isolated area. However before we could reach the

farm, we ran into a problem: the road became sonarrow and uneven, we couldn't drive any farther on it,

and my father had to stop.Since we weren't far from the farm, I decided to walkthe rest of the way. I began walking and I hadn't gonefar when an unusual sight confronted me: along the hillto my left I saw four small elephants marching along apath just over my head. They were only a few metersaway from me. I stood facing them and lifted both my


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hands into the air over my head, almost in an act ofhomage. The elephants stopped and looked at me, and I

had a vague feeling I could communicate with them. Irecalled I had a candy bar in my father's car, and sinceI thought my father was still nearby, I told the

elephants I would feed them some candy. I distinctlyheard one elephant tell the others that I had a candybar. They seemed pleased with the idea that I would

give them some candy; but suddenly, without warning,they turned and ran off.Turning around and looking behind me I saw what had

frightened them: a large orange tiger with blackstripes, standing not 10 meters away from me. I beganbacking away from the tiger. The immediate landscape

around me was rocky mostly large, smooth, roundrocks. It would have been a pleasant area to walkthrough, if not for the fact that the tiger was facing

me. I backed up until I could go no farther, for I foundmyself at the edge of a high cliff with a valley down

below me.The tiger didn't make a move toward me, but it didn'tmove away either. Finally it simply lay down, blocking

my exit.I turned and looked out over the valley, and witnessed


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another unusual sight. There below was a herd of darkred cattle being chased by two mountain lions. I was

mesmerized by the chase, thinking this was the waynature was supposed to function, with predatorschasing their prey. However I knew such chases weregenerally no longer the case since man had wiped out

most predators. One lion knocked down a calf andpinned it to the ground. The second lion knocked down a

second calf and the rest of the herd stampeded away.In the commotion, one large cow (perhaps 10 timeslarger than the others, completely out of proportion

with the scene) stepped on one of the smaller cows andseemed to squash it. The herd then continued running

out of sight, leaving the lions to their feast.

Now that I looked around the valley and thesurrounding hills, I could see other herds of animalswhich didn't look like cows, although I couldn't tell

exactly what they were. It finally dawned on me whatwas happening: the owner of this farm had obviously

turned the farm into an animal sanctuary. I wonderedif there was fence all around the farm to keep the

animals in, or whether they just knew where to stay.I loved the idea of the farm being an animal sanctuary.However that didn't solve my immediate problem: how
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to get past the tiger. When I now turned back to lookat the tiger, my problem had multiplied: now a mountain

lion had also shown up and was slowly moving toward me.The lion looked so powerful, I knew I wouldn't have achance if it attacked me. And I saw no means of

escape. However, it wasn't completely clear whetherthe lion viewed me as prey, and whether it intended to

attack me.The mysteries of the imagination seem infinite.

Discovering the meaning of even one of the symbols isrewarding.

Dream of: 01 September 1995 "ElephantSymbolism"

My sister and I were in a house in Portsmouth, wherewe were living withmy father . As I was sitting in theliving room, it suddenly dawned on me that my fatherhad been absent for two days. I recalled that around10 p.m., two days earlier, my father had said that hewas going to the store to get something, and that he

would return in a short while. I distinctly rememberedhaving seen him leave; he had looked as if he were

about 40 years old; his hair has still been black.Now, two days later, he had still not returned. His

absence hadn't bothered me until now; but suddenly Irealized something must be wrong if he had been gone
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for so long.I called to my sister and told her to get ready, that we

needed to go and look for our father. She came to meand without delay we walked outside, boarded my red1986 BMW, and drove off. I was sitting in the driver'sseat, and my sister, instead of sitting in the passenger

seat, was sitting on the middle console right next tome.

My sister didn't look like herself. She had long blackhair and was wearing braces. She seemed in her lateteens, and resembled the actress Juliette Lewis. Shewas wearing a dress and as I drove off, I put my right

hand on her bare left knee. I would have moved myhand farther up her leg, but she kept her knees

pressed tightly together so I couldn't position my handbetween her legs.I thought we could report our father as a missing

person to the police; but I first wanted to see if wecould find him. I decided we should first look for him

on the Farm in Gallia County and we soon foundourselves on a country gravel road, headed for the

Farm. On the way, I told my sister we needed to thinkof every place where our father might be, and then wewould go there. As I thought, it occurred to me that
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our father might be with his mother ( my grandmotherMabel) in the home into which she had moved on Eighth

Street in Portsmouth. I said to my sister, "He's atgrandma's."That would account for why my grandmother hadn't

been calling our father every day as she usually did. Butsuddenly it occurred to me that another reason mightaccount for my grandmother's not having called: my

grandmother might have died. The thought that mygrandmother had died became so vivid in my mind, Iimmediately concluded it must be true. I turned to my

sister and said, "Grandma's dead."My attention to this troubling thought was quickly

interrupted by an unusual sight. We were deep in the

country not far from the Farm, with forest all aroundus. However to our left was a large field, in which (tomy surprise) were standing several elephants . Although

seeing elephants running wild in that area wasextraordinary, I knew some elephants did in fact roam

around there.I slowed down the car and pointed out the beautiful

elephants to my sister. At least two large adultelephants had six or seven small elephants near them.The elephants awed me; I felt extremely fortunate to
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be able to see them. I felt as if elephants symbolizedsomething special for me and as if my seeing them

there had some meaning, but I couldn't at the momentdivine what that meaning was.The elephants (obviously alarmed by our presence)

began moving away. At about the same time I heard agunshot in the woods nearby. Obviously hunters were in

the area. How sad that hunters were out. Only a few

elephants still remained in the wild like this; they hadlittle chance of surviving much longer against thehunters.

All the elephants were quickly dispersing into thesurrounding woods all except one, a large male with

long tusks. I could see the male in my rear view mirror ,

on the road about 50 meters behind us, striding in ourdirection. I quickly pushed the gas pedal to take off,but to my chagrin, the car would barely move. I

frantically kept pressing down on the pedal, but the carhardly responded. I cried to my sister, "The car won't

move and there's one bearing down on us!"Gradually the car began to pick up speed and I was ableto pull away from the elephant, which disappeared from

my view. But now up ahead, something else caught myeye. The body of a large animal was lying in the road
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and blocking the entire right side. At first I thoughtthe animal must be an elephant which one of the

hunters had shot, but when we were almost upon it, Isaw the animal wasn't an elephant, but a dead buffalo.As we drove to the left side of the gravel road to passthe buffalo, I noticed how strange it looked. Most of

its body had already decayed and the head was stickingstraight up in the air. I could see right through the eye

socket to the empty air behind it, the back of the skullbeing missing. Lying on the ground were large whitehorns which were out of proportion with the head

three or four times the expected size.I also realized the buffalo hadn't been killed by

hunters. Wild buffaloes often crossed the road there.

The buffalo had needed to climb up a steep bank toreach the road at that point. This buffalo had obviouslyhad difficulty crossing the road, and had died in the

process. It seemed appropriate for the buffalo's bodyto be left there.

Once we had passed the buffalo, I saw the Farmhouseon the hill ahead of us; now my thoughts returned to

my father and my grandmother. Although my thoughtsseemed confused, I abruptly remembered I had

overheard my sister talking to someone earlier in the


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she wouldn't refuse having sex with me. As I pushedthrough the mud, I thought to myself that she didn't

realize how hard it was for me to have to carry her likethat through the black mud.The treasure of the imagination is unrealized unless it is

transformed through art into reality.Dream of: 11 August 1996 (2) "Diving for Treasure"

My wife Carolinaand I had gone to what appeared tobe a resort, to spend a couple days. We decided to dosome swimming, and dressed in swimsuits (Carolina waswearing red), we walked outside to a pond where otherpeople were swimming. While Carolina walked around to

the other side of the pond, I jumped in near somepeople in the water. Some wanted to wrestle, eventhough wrestling in the water was obviously a bit

dangerous. An older man grabbed me and pulled meunder, but he immediately let go when he saw that I

needed to surface. I did the same thing to him, only Ipulled him down deeper under the water, then releasedhim when I felt he needed to surface. Still, I thought

the game was dangerous, and I didn't want to continue.I looked across to the other side and saw Carolina

swimming over there. It was an odd sight, because itlooked as if she had swum right through the bank on

the opposite side. Curious, I climbed out of the water
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and walked around to where she was.Finding her standing on the bank, looking down into the

water, I looked down and saw what she was looking at.It looked as if there was a key and a quarter lying onthe bottom of the pond. I decided to see if I could

retrieve the objects. I dove into the water and swamdown until I discovered that from above I had actually

seen a nickel and a quarter lying next to each other.

Once I was on the bottom, I saw many other items:another quarter, a cloth elephant about 12 centimeterslong, some small silver religious items, someearrings which looked as if they had never been used, an item

which had a word that started with "Elect ..." but whichI couldn't read clearly, and a brass key which looked

like a motel key. The key reminded me of an old cellulartelephone key which I used to have. I thought it mighteven be the same key.

There was so much stuff, I just began scooping it up inhandfuls and bringing it back to the surface. Carolina

held open a bag, and I put the things in the bag. I loveddoing this. Since we were going to be there for twodays, I could spend the rest of the day, and also the

following day, looking for things. Although I was learning to love my imagination, I still

balked at the cost of maintaining it.
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well acquainted. I was happy to see him. He sat downand we began talking with each other. Our conversation

quickly turned to what I was doing with my life. Cosbyseemed completely unsurprised to learn that I was nolonger practicing law. He said, "You're completely

different."I understood what he meant. He was saying that I

wasn't like other lawyers, that I was set apart, that I

would never fit in. He he wasn't talking disparagingly;he was simply making a statement of fact. I in turnreplied, "We're completely different." I was simply

agreeing with him, pointing out that he and I were verydifferent from each other. As if to confirm thatdespite how different we were, we would remain

friends, Cosby replied, "You'll always be my girlfriend."Another old classmate from law school had also taken aseat behind Cosby. I quickly recognized him as Coppock.I had never known Coppock well. I recalled that he hadbeen a police officer before going to law school, that

he had made excellent grades while he had been in lawschool, and that he had been expected to prosper oncehe became a lawyer. He joined in our conversation andinterjected that the only thing he wanted was to ownhis own home. When I heard this, I reflected how low


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Coppock had set his sights. But of course this wastypical for many lawyers. The only thing they really

wanted in life was a little security. They would worktheir lives away just so they could have a house. In theprocess they would lose any ambition they ever had formore elevated goals in life. I mentioned to Cosby that I

already owned my own house. I was glad of that fact,but I definitely didn't consider the owning of a house

as my paramount goal in life.I hadn't asked Cosby anything about what he had beendoing since law school. I thought he had worked for the

Texas Supreme Court after he had graduated, but Iwas unsure he was still working there.

Before I could find out what Cosby was doing now,

however, my attention was distracted by somethingelse. Another man had also walked up to our littlegroup, and with him he had two youngelephants . One

elephant was just a tiny baby, about as big as amedium-sized dog. The man held the baby elephant inhis arms and didn't let go. With the man was another young elephant which stood a little higher than my

knees. This elephant walked over to me and allowed meto pet it. It had long soft hair all over, the feel of

which was exquisite. The elephant even climbed up into


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my lap and rolled over on its back, allowing me to rubits stomach. I figured it probably weighed a couple

hundred pounds, but it didn't feel at all heavy on me.Finally the elephant rolled off my lap and onto theground. It lay on its back, still allowing me to pet it.

When I asked the man how much the elephants cost, hesaid the little one which he was holding cost over two

hundred dollars, while the bigger one which I was

petting cost over six hundred dollars. That seemedcheap to me. The elephant I was petting was sowonderfully charming, I even thought about buying it.But then I began to realize what I was thinking about.

Surely feeding an elephant must cost a great deal.What would happen when the elephant grew to an adult.

Where would I keep it? As much as I liked theelephant, I began to see how impractical actuallyowning it would be.

Laying claim to my own imagination has provenexhilaratingly difficult.

Dream of: 29 May 1998 "Romping Elephants"I was sitting in a long white recreation vehicle owned

by my father . The vehicle was parked on a narrowgravel road which traversed a large farm which my

father likewise owned. All my attention was focused onthe field beside the road, where dozens of elephants


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were romping and running. There must have been 100 ofthe magnificent animals. Especially prominent was one

superb creature, whose deep gray color was almostblack. The elephant flung its head into the air, flappingits huge ears and displaying its enormous tusks. I wasimpressed to see my father had taken to raising these

splendid animals.Suddenly I noticed my brother Chris walking in the

field where the elephants were. Although Chris didn'tappear to be crippled with muscular dystrophy, he didseem to be having some difficulty walking. I could see

he was at least somewhat hampered by the mudthrough which he was sloshing in the field. He also

appeared to be all bundled up in heavy winter clothes.

When he reached the side of the road, I stepped outof the RV, walked over to him and picked him up in myarms. He seemed as if he might be around 10 years old.

I turned and carried him back to the RV.Once we were inside, I set him down on his feet in

front of me. When we were looking right at each other,I suddenly felt like singing. A tune popped into my head

and I sang out, "I like me. I like me. I like me."Although I realized the words were a bit peculiar, the

song was actually quite beautiful. Chris and I both
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enjoyed the song. Albeit slowly, my power of imagination grew. Mystical

realms loomed.Dream of: 02 September 2002 "Controlling An

Elephant"I had arrived at a small hotel room or apartment where

I found my sister and two other girls (all about 15 years old). My sister didn't look at all like herself, but

she did have long brown hair. They were all acting alittle funny and I immediately realized they had taken

a drug.My first concern was my brother Chris , who wasn't

present, but who was supposed to be under the care ofmy sister. He was in another room of this place whichseemed increasingly like a large hotel. I picked up the

phone and called the place where Chris was. Heanswered the phone and I could hear his voice. I askedhim how he was. He was having a problem and he asked

me to come up. His voice was sweet but weak. Hewanted me to come up and help him.

I hung up, intending to go up and help Chris. However, Ibegan talking with my sister and the two girls, all ofwhom were very pretty. I realized they were all high

and I learned they had paid over $300 for some drugs,but they had been ripped off and had only received a
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few drugs.One extremely pretty girl was lying on a bed. I walked

over to the bed and thought about lying down next toher and kissing her on the stomach ... but I didn't.Instead, I decided to help them recover their money. I

was rather angry that they had paid this money tosomebody for drugs.

***

I pulled up in a car in front of a little white trailer-house and I stepped out of the car. I could see throughthe front screen door into the interior of the trailerwhere an oriental woman was sitting at a table in the

kitchen area. Before she could do anything, I walked upto the door and stepped into the trailer. I immediately

confronted the woman about the drugs and I told her Iwanted the money back, about $320. She balked ... shedidn't want to give me the money, and I realized I

would probably have to take action.When a man called from the next room, I walked in

there, found the guy, grabbed him, and threatened him.Then I heard the voice of another man from another

room. I released the fellow I was holding and I headedto the other room. I walked in and saw the man lying on

a bed. He, like the other two, was oriental. All were


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probably in their early 20s. As soon as I saw thisfellow, I knew he had some kind of power and I wished

I had brought a gun. I almost felt as if I had a gun. IfI did have one, I would point it at the fellow's head andthreaten him. As I imagined pointing the gun, it seemed

as if I were actually doing so.The man had the power to control things around him.

Some different animals were in different rooms of this

trailer. Although the trailer was small, it containedmany rooms. Anelephant was in one room. I could feelthe man controlling the elephant and I thought theelephant would come into this room and attack me. Irealized this fellow had much more power than I had

imagined and I concluded I needed to leave. As I

started walking out, I realized the fellow could not onlycontrol things, but he could control the wholeenvironment with mystical power. The whole trailer

seemed to begin to change and the atmosphere almostseemed unreal.

I pushed forward until I managed to exit the trailer.Outside, I wondered if the man might even be able to

control the environment out there. I hoped I couldsimply get back in the car, but when I looked, I

couldn't see anyone in the car. It looked as if the
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three girls weren't there. I wasn't sure what I wasgoing to do because I was still worried the fellow was

going to control the whole world around me.Once dedicated to the imagination, I could not turn back.The secure real life simply was not to be found. There lay

pain and rage. My only hope was in the imagination,even though it was a definitely frightening place at times.

Dream of: 06 July 2003 "Pain and Rage"Walking in the downtown area of a small town, I

stopped in front of the display window of a store.Dozens of small items had been carefully arranged on

the shelves in front of me however, I couldn'tprecisely make out what the items were. I thought that

the store might be a beauty salon and that the itemswere small replicas of old beauty devices, such as

antique hair dryers. As I continued perusing the items,however, I discovered all sorts of small replicas ofitems which had nothing to do with beauty salons. Evensome small artistic sculptures were mixed in with thelot. The entire display was well-done and impressive.

I stepped further inside the small portico (still

outside) near the doorway. I could see the displaywindow on the other side of the door hadn't beencompleted yet. A woman (obviously the owner) was alsostanding outside in front of the window. She seemed to
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be in the process of working on the second displaywindow. She was probably in her late 40s and had kinky

hair. She somewhat reminded me of my Dallas friend,Eloise LaGrone. As she sat down for a moment, herskirt raised up and I had a glimpse of her pubic area.I stood a few minutes more, admiring the display, thenturned to leave. I stopped in my tracks however; I feltlike complementing the woman on her display. I turned

back to her and said that I had been in many cities, andthat this was one of the best displays I had ever seen.She seemed flattered; I turned and walked off.

I had only walked a short distance when a commotionfrom the other side of the street alerted me. The

other side of the street didn't have any buildings on it.

Instead, it was simply the side of a hill. All along thebottom of the hill, at the street, ran a tall wire fence.Now I saw why the fence was there: two gray

elephants were enclosed by the fence on the hillside.The elephants were causing the commotion. Theyseemed in pain and rage. Trumpeting a screeching

sound, one thundered toward the wire fence.Dramatically, the elephant leaped over the fence, about

50 meters from me.The elephant turned toward me. Alarmed, I perceived
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my danger and ran around a corner. No place to hide only a fire hydrant I might squat behind. I peeked back

around the corner. I couldn't see the elephant now dueto a dip in the street. Maybe I could find a store Icould hide in. The first store I found was closed; but

the second store was open. It wasn't exactly a store just a hole in the wall, about waist high, through whichrefreshments were apparently served. I pulled myself

into the hole and began half-crawling, half walkingthrough a rocky tunnel which was white and lit. Ithought I could hear a Hispanic woman speaking

Spanish in the end of the tunnel. She must be the onewho served the refreshments there. Maybe at least

there I would be safe from the elephant.Turning my imagination into art became my dream.

Dream of: 25 July 2003 "Porcelain Elephant"After my wife Carolinaand I walked into a Goodwillstore, I was immediately surprised to see a group of

intriguing statues standing clustered on the floor. Twostatues in particular were alluring: statues of John the

Baptist and Jesus Christ. These two were about 30centimeters taller than I. They were hand-carved from

dark brown wood, and had been created in exquisitedetail especially John the Baptist (the Christ statuewas not quite as well-carved as the Baptist). The faces
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I looked on some shelves at other items. Some clothbags about 10 centimeters tall were sitting on one

shelf. They were filled with sand and had artisticdesigns sewn on the side. I stuck my finger in the sandof one bag. The bags were pretty, but I wasn't

interested. If a person had many things like these, itwould be necessary to store some things part of thetime; maybe big plastic boxes could be used; but that

would be a lot of trouble. And was I not trying toreduce the number of my possessions, to lighten up?Maybe I shouldn't even buy the statue of the Baptist.I picked up a picture frame with a print which lookedas if it might be by Marc Chagall. The frame was well-

designed, the kind which allow easy changing of

pictures. I was somewhat interested; but again shouldI be acquiring more possessions?When Carolina walked back up to me, still carrying her

item, I became more convinced I didn't need to buyanything. At this juncture in my life I didn't need toacquire, I needed to get rid of things. The Baptist

statue was so exquisite not buying it would bedifficult. Abruptly, however, I realized I didn't needto buy anything right now. Carolina and I agreed: we

wouldn't buy anything today. Although I have been firmly grounded in reality, I have
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tended toward mysticism, and I have sensed that myimagination is the portal to the mystical world.

Dream of: 06 August 2004 "Elephant's Eyes"I was at my Center Street House (a two-story frame

house I had bought in Portsmouth at a foreclosuresale). I had hired some people who were cleaning up

trash in the back yard, putting the trash in the trunkand back seat of a little white car parked in the alley.

One load of trash had already been hauled away by theowner of the car (but he had used a truck for that

first load, for which I had paid him $50). I was now abit reluctant to pay the man another $50 to have a

another load hauled away in a car. Since I hadn't beenthere when my workers had begun loading the trash

into the car, I didn't know if they had already told thefellow I would pay $50. The car was already almost

loaded down. I picked up a long tree branch and triedto fit it into the car, but the branch was too long. I

tried to break off the small end of the branch, but itonly bent without breaking. Finally I broke off a meter-

long piece on the thick end of the branch.I still didn't want to pay $50. I walked over to the

back porch of the next-door neighbor, Ralph. I thoughtmaybe I could hire Ralph to use his black truck (whichwas sitting out back) and I could pay him $30-$35. I
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still had about two loads which needed to go to thedump (three piles were in the yard). The yard would

look so much better if it were clean. Of course I wouldalso have to pay dump fees. It was all gettingexpensive.

I tracked through fresh untrampled snow on Ralph'sback porch. Unfortunately it looked as if Ralph was notup yet. Since Ralph didn't come to the door, I walked

back over to my House.About 10 large white wooden doors were stackedagainst the side of my House. I had forgotten those

doors. I remembered I had torn some walls out of theHouse and had already hauled the walls away, but I had

forgotten these doors. I hated to take the doors to

the dump -- they were heavy and would be expensive todispose of at the dump. Plus the wood in the doors wasso good, I hated to destroy it. But I didn't see what

else I could do.I walked inside the House. Most of the trash which had

been inside had already been taken out. Only a fewitems which had been left in the House remained.

There were a couple old trophies. One trophy was of afoot; another was of a man driving a tractor (but theman's head and torso had been broken off). Another


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all the elephants raced off away from us. I especiallyremarked how fast one elephant was running, gracefully

sprinting into the distance.I next noticed several cheetahs grouped together in athicket, apparently pursuing their prey. The cheetahs

adroitly wound themselves through the brush.With so much wildlife in the area, I was surprised tosee a couple small houses nearby and I wondered who

would live clear up there. Both houses were small,probably not more than one room. After my companionand I walked up close to one, I wondered if I might be

able to stay up there sometime -- this was such apicturesque place and I would surely enjoy some time

up there alone.

I walked up to one of the little houses, and finding thedoor open, I walked in. I was immediately greeted by aman standing in the room and I instantly knew who hewas: Ernest Hemmingway. He was a tall slender lanky

man (probably in his late 40s). I felt ratherpresumptuous being in the house of Ernest Hemingway,and I figured I wouldn't be allowed to stay, but he wasquite cordial and unassuming. We spoke and he quickly

put me at ease and made me feel welcome.A tape recorder was playing and I quickly recognized


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the recording as a play by William Shakespeare. Irealized Hemingway and I would have something in

common: apparently we both enjoyed listening to tapesof Shakespeare plays. Maybe Hemingway and I couldspend time together. I didn't know much about him,except that he was a writer, but I felt at ease there

and I thought he and I could be friends.I immediately thought of something we might be able

to do together and I pulled out a book which containedpoems by Dante Alighieri. I motioned Hemingway overto a chair and we both sat down. I opened the book to a

poem and began reading. I quickly stopped however,because the Shakespeare tape in the background wasinterfering with my reading. I asked the other person

who had accompanied me there (whom I now identifiedas my wife Carolina) to turn off the recorder so I couldcontinue with my reading. She did so and I once again

began reading.Hemingway was now standing, and as I read, he seemeda bit distracted. I quickly surmised what the problem

might be: I was reading the poem in English and hewould probably prefer it read in the original Italian. Istopped and asked him if he would prefer Italian. Hedidn't answer,

washing an elephant

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