Dream of: 24 September 1997 "Comparisons"
The kind of large white metal bucket-contraption that are used by men who work on electric or telephone wires – I was in one. Only this bucket was hanging from a metal wire, like a ski lift, on the side of a hill. Directly behind and below me, perhaps 10 meters was a similar white bucket with a sole occupant: my brother, a fellow (probably in his mid 20s). Although I was staring at him, his head was turned away so he wasn't looking at me. The movement of the buckets had come to a halt, so we were standing still.
I pulled out a bow, and an arrow with a sharp point. I put the arrow on the bow, pulled back the string, aimed at my brother's chest, and fired. Just as I let the arrow go, my brother turned and looked straight at me and the arrow speeding toward him. In a flash, just as the arrow was about to thrust into his chest, my brother grabbed the shaft of the arrow in mid air, just centimeters from his breast.
I knew the arrow could have killed my brother if it had hit him. However, it wasn't my intention to kill my brother. In fact I was trying to help him by teaching him how to protect himself. However I knew the method which I had chosen was extremely dangerous and no game.
My brother again turned his head away. This time I picked out a much sharper arrow, with a black metal head with projecting flanges. Again I fired, and again my brother looked up just in the nick of time and caught the arrow in mid air.
The third time, I picked a different type of arrow. This arrow had a head which looked something like a U-shaped magnet, with two thick dull black heads. When my brother turned his head away again, I fired the magnet-shaped arrow. This time my brother didn't turn his head in time, and the arrow struck him in his left breast. Immediately I knew the arrow had struck a little metal box in my brother's shirt pocket and that he was uninjured. It made me think of what had happened to
Theodore Roosevelt when he had been campaigning for the presidency in 1912. I recalled how Roosevelt had been hit by an assassin's bullet in the chest. But Roosevelt had had a metal case for his spectacles in his pocket, and the bullet had hit the case. The case had dulled the impact of the bullet enough so that the Roosevelt survived. I knew my brother would also survive.***
I had been put on trial for firing the arrows at my brother. I was in the courtroom waiting for the final verdict. During the course of the trial at one time I had seen a vision of two boxes of detergent. I had instinctively known that these two boxes represented something for me and that if I would concentrate on them, I would understand their meaning. But the boxes of detergent had seemed so mundane, I had simply ignored them.
The final verdict came down: I had been acquitted. As the judge on the bench delivered the verdict, he also mentioned the two boxes of detergent . He explained how I could have used the boxes of detergent. He explained that the purpose of the boxes was to prove that one box of detergent was better than the other. But the proper method wasn't to compare the two boxes. The judge explained that if I were to simply compare the two boxes of detergent, I would simply show that one box was slightly better than the other box. The proper method was simply to concentrate on showing the actual cleaning power of the better box of detergent. If I would just concentrate on the total cleaning power of one box, rather than to simply show that one box was slightly better than the other box, I would have a much stronger argument.
I thought to myself that in the future I shouldn't forget this lesson.
Copyright 2003 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
