Recurring Dreams
Nov. 6th, 2006 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisI've just submitted a large SOX compliance report so I'm rewarding myself with some quality LJ time...
In recent weeks, I've had a recurring dream. It's never precisely the same but the thematic similarity is unmistakable. Saturday morning, I awoke with yet another version.
I find myself on my parents' farm in northern Ontario. On a whim, I go for a walk south from the house, around the west end of the barn past the milk house. In the real world, there is nothing but a large rectangular field of about 60 acres, bounded by the farm buildings to the north, the road on the west, an ancient trail on the south and forests to the east. In my dream however, the south half of the field is entirely wooded and there seem to be structures among the trees.
Out of curiousity, I walk into the woods. I'm surprised to find a lone survivalist has a house on my parents' farm. I attempt to talk to him but he's wary of outsiders and gives only curt responses to my questions about his name and what he's doing here. He becomes distracted by some activity towards the front of the house so I look around the space he's created; it's a normal single family house although clearly the maintenance and housekeeping chores have slipped. Still, a good cleaning would bring it into line within a day.
It's my turn then to be distracted: I see some additional structures a couple of hundred feet to the east, further back into the forests. I head out the back door of the house to investigate.
I discover a small clearing where I find four shanty houses, with four families of, for lack of a better term, hippies. They've created a small commune and are working to eek a small living out of the rocky soil of this area of the forest. They have very little but they were exceedingly friendly and welcomed me warmly. As with the survivalist minutes ago, I asked who they were and why they were setting up a homestead on my parents' farm... they do know this is private property, right?
We chat for a while and I realize all the residents --survivalist and hippies-- are largely harmless and are simply trying to create a space for themselves. That they're on our family farm is a coincidence: it was simply the first place they discovered which wasn't openly hostile to them. They know its private property but there's no where else to go.
Knowing my parents would be sympathetic to their situation, I offer to bring up the issue with the folks to see about somehow formalizing their arrangement. I introduce the survivalist and the hippies; while they don't especially trust each other at first, but I point out that they're neighbours, neither is going anywhere any time soon and there are advantages to finding a way to co-exist. When I'm done, they're in a much friendlier mood. And I head off to talk to the parents to see about at least getting some form of written blessing from them for their homesteads if not some agreement to outright sell the acres occupied to the new residents. Winter makes the matter rather urgent as without proper title to their plots or at least the cooperation of my parents, they can't possibly hope to have electricity, heat or water in their homes before the snow falls.
The dreams all have the same basis: people not of my immediate family have moved onto the family farm without prior warning or permission. I discover their presence and attempt to figure out how to make the situation work. In one version, the occupying groups are refugees. In another, one is a restaurant chain and a not-for-profit co-op.
My general interpretation flows in two directions:
Any other interpretations I've overlooked?
In recent weeks, I've had a recurring dream. It's never precisely the same but the thematic similarity is unmistakable. Saturday morning, I awoke with yet another version.
I find myself on my parents' farm in northern Ontario. On a whim, I go for a walk south from the house, around the west end of the barn past the milk house. In the real world, there is nothing but a large rectangular field of about 60 acres, bounded by the farm buildings to the north, the road on the west, an ancient trail on the south and forests to the east. In my dream however, the south half of the field is entirely wooded and there seem to be structures among the trees.
Out of curiousity, I walk into the woods. I'm surprised to find a lone survivalist has a house on my parents' farm. I attempt to talk to him but he's wary of outsiders and gives only curt responses to my questions about his name and what he's doing here. He becomes distracted by some activity towards the front of the house so I look around the space he's created; it's a normal single family house although clearly the maintenance and housekeeping chores have slipped. Still, a good cleaning would bring it into line within a day.
It's my turn then to be distracted: I see some additional structures a couple of hundred feet to the east, further back into the forests. I head out the back door of the house to investigate.
I discover a small clearing where I find four shanty houses, with four families of, for lack of a better term, hippies. They've created a small commune and are working to eek a small living out of the rocky soil of this area of the forest. They have very little but they were exceedingly friendly and welcomed me warmly. As with the survivalist minutes ago, I asked who they were and why they were setting up a homestead on my parents' farm... they do know this is private property, right?
We chat for a while and I realize all the residents --survivalist and hippies-- are largely harmless and are simply trying to create a space for themselves. That they're on our family farm is a coincidence: it was simply the first place they discovered which wasn't openly hostile to them. They know its private property but there's no where else to go.
Knowing my parents would be sympathetic to their situation, I offer to bring up the issue with the folks to see about somehow formalizing their arrangement. I introduce the survivalist and the hippies; while they don't especially trust each other at first, but I point out that they're neighbours, neither is going anywhere any time soon and there are advantages to finding a way to co-exist. When I'm done, they're in a much friendlier mood. And I head off to talk to the parents to see about at least getting some form of written blessing from them for their homesteads if not some agreement to outright sell the acres occupied to the new residents. Winter makes the matter rather urgent as without proper title to their plots or at least the cooperation of my parents, they can't possibly hope to have electricity, heat or water in their homes before the snow falls.
The dreams all have the same basis: people not of my immediate family have moved onto the family farm without prior warning or permission. I discover their presence and attempt to figure out how to make the situation work. In one version, the occupying groups are refugees. In another, one is a restaurant chain and a not-for-profit co-op.
My general interpretation flows in two directions:
- I've been away from the family homestead for several years now and I'm unconsciously feeling disconnected from the home soil and the changes which have inevitably occurred since I last visited.
- I'm spending much of my time in real life negotiating my way through a variety of obstacles not of my choosing. It's an ugly job, someone has to do it and I'm the only one available: ducking the responsibility is not an option.
Any other interpretations I've overlooked?
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Ducking the responsibility is not an option...
Date: 2006-11-06 08:13 pm (UTC)