Fuck You!
The Dreamer is inside of a bright luxury clothing store.
His Wife and his friend Dan are there. Dan is doing most of the shopping, but the Dreamer finds something that suits him too. Then the group is at the check-out counter: it is staffed by a known face, but name forgotten, young man who used to be a “well-to-do” student at the college that the Wife and the Dreamer went to.
Then the Dreamer is sitting at a round black table with a group of people including: Michael Murphy, Torey (a fictional person from Cobra Kai), and Lainey Finklestein. The Dreamer notices everyone, including him, is dressed gothic, in all-black. The Dreamer feels like an imposter because these people are real goths, and he is only dressed as one. The Dreamer looks at Murphy: Murphy is hiding something behind his back. Murphy asks the Dreamer, why are you looking at me like that? The Dreamer says because your hands are finding something behind your back. Then Murphy slams a piece of paper on the table: it’s a religious text. The Dreamer infers that this is a religious meeting. He fears to share his views on religion, but then he relaxes and knows he will be fine.
Then the Dreamer is outside, and it is dark. He is walking home in that part of the old neighborhood, on the streets near where Thomas used to live, where there were single family homes. The Dreamer begins to suspect that he is being watched by a group of punks. He keeps walking alone. Then three of the punks confront him. One of the punks is the forgotten young man, one of the punks is Michael Deerborn, and one is Jacob (the Dreamer’s most recent employee). The Dreamer begins to fear he is going to get mugged. The punks grab and begin to mug the Dreamer. Deerborn takes out a sharp pair of scissors and starts to cut off the top of the Dreamer’s shoes, the part where the laces go. “You can afford new shoes,” says Deerborn. The Dreamer begins to protest, he says, “You don’t know me,” over and over again and starts a story about how “he was poor in 2nd grade”. The Dreamer kicks at the muggers, and kicks himself awake in his Foolish bed.
Then the Dreamer is in his car and it is twilight. There is a rail-road crossing. The rail-road crossing dings and the gates come down. The Dreamer is in a hurry. The train is far away. He considers whether to drive around the gates, but decides that is a risk not worth taking. Then the Dreamer is in the parking lot of a lawn mower service company. The Dreamer sees what looks like his lawn mower in the parking lot. There’s a service person in the Dreamer’s way and the Dreamer yells at him to move. Then the Dreamer is trying to start the lawn mower. The lawn mower won’t start. Then the Dreamer sees that the lawn mower is plastic, and not his. The service person returns with a smirk. Then the fake mower is gone, and there is more than one service person and they corroborate together, in a suspicious way, that someone stole the Dreamer’s mower, but the Dreamer infers that they are the thieves. The Dreamer yells “Fuck you,” repeatedly until he wakes.
Context: We had our friend Dan over for dinner: he’s an interior designer, with a taste for luxury. I’ve dreamed of Michael Murphy before usually in an ambivalent context. He was part of a group of kids, younger than me, from “the other side of the tracks”. We met around junior high school. Lainey Finklestein is a young woman, younger than me, who I recently socialized with at my sister-in-laws wedding. Torey is a fictional character from a nostalgic television show called Cobra Kai, it’s a coming of age, Karate Kid, story about high school aged kids. Jacob (one of the punks in the dream) is a recent employee of my company. He just started yesterday. He is in the Sales Department. My lawn mower has been broken this season. I keep saying that I’m going to fix it. I ordered the parts and started the process but ran into roadblocks and haven’t been back out to the garage to get it done. My wife keeps telling me to bring it into the service department.
Associations: Sometimes I like Dan, but sometimes I find him too snobby and snarky toward others. The unknown young man, I remember in college thinking he was rich, because he had nice clothes and shoes, and being jealous of his wealth. Michael Murphy I associate as something I tried to impress. All black clothing I associate with “atheism” and also with a recent phase in my life where I was trying on a mad-at-the-world attitude and mainly dressed in black and aggressive clothing. Torey is a poor kid who fights for her survival. Lainey is from a wealthy family. I love to discuss religious concepts and I have a strong religious impulse. I used to think Thomas’ neighborhood, where the single family homes were, were for the rich kids. I used to wish I could live there. Michael Deer-born is a gentle acquaintance from college, and my Wife’s first crush. I hope that my recent hire Jacob makes me more money: that he turns out to be a good salesman.
Feelings: greed, imposter-syndrome, fear, defensiveness, anger
Interpretation: This is a dream about an attitude toward money. The Dreamer grew up on “the other side of the tracks” and now that he is in a well-to-do financial position, hiring salespeople to make money for him, he is confronting shadow figures who were “from the other side of the tracks” (Unknown Young Man, Michael Murphy, Lainey Finklestein, fictional Tory). The Dreamer has an uncharitable attitude: toward the Unknown Young Man who was rich but not working in retail, toward the service professionals who he yells at to “get out of his way”, and in terms of the “shoes for the poor”. Why doesn’t the Dreamer just give the muggers his shoes? He is so suspicious and uncharitable that they need to cut them off of his feet. Further, the fictional character Torey indicates that the Dreamer has made up a “poor me” story about himself to justify his aggressive social behavior: he tries this story on the aggressors who try to steal his shoes, but they don’t buy it. The Dreamermaker suggests the Dreamer is an imposter at a dangerous cross-roads: he is a man who “loves to discuss religious concepts”, but pretends to be an elitist; and this is an injurious mistake.
