I was looking at what appeared to be a car engine, but which actually seemed to be a printer. I was trying to make it function, but when I would put a piece of paper in the printer, the paper would simply circle around a roller without stopping in the right place. Finally a man walked up, touched a few things, and the paper stopped where it was supposed to. I asked him what he had done and he showed me a long flat piece of metal in the machine which hadn't been catching properly. He also pointed out several other parts of the machine which needed to be functioning correctly. It looked rather complicated.

***

I had gone to a place where I was apparently going to attend some classes. Standing in the back of the room, I noticed that someone had thrown quite a number of old pictures in a waste can. They appeared that they might have been pulled out of book. I looked through them and was quite intrigued by them. Many seemed to be pictures of statues, and one in particular caught my attention. It showed a group of perhaps 30 statues of men dressed in military uniforms, probably from the time of the American Civil War. The men were standing in a group. The man in front (who was obviously the leader) and a couple men closest to him had had most of the features of their faces and upper bodies worn away. I imagined it might have been from soldiers going off to war coming by the statues and touching them for good luck. Gradually the touching had worn away the stone.

***

I was sitting in what appeared to be a large outdoor classroom in which the seats were long benches cut from stone. The place resembled an amphitheater, and down in front a man behind a podium was about to speak. It appeared that it might be the same man who had earlier helped me. The seats were all full, and when the man spoke, everyone became quiet. But gradually people began whispering, and many began to leave. Apparently they weren't interested in what the man was talking about – coal.

I, however, was quite interested in the subject of coal. It now appeared to me that there was indeed much to learn and I strained my ears to hear.

Finally the man concluded his speech and most of the people left. Since I knew he was going to speak again soon, I decided to move to a closer seat. I walked down to the front and across and back up to a seat just a few rows back from directly in front of the podium. I sat down, waiting for the discussion on coal to begin. I knew there was much which I still had to learn, but I was ready to begin.

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