Dream of: 11 September 1986 "Dreamwork"
While at the home of Anderson (a friend from my high school years) in Portsmouth, Ohio, I began helping Anderson carry out some garbage-bags full of trash. After we had thrown the garbage over a small embankment, I asked Anderson how the garbage men were going to get it. He told me they had a device which would suck it up.
In the garbage lay a large thick book which looked as if it might be a catalog. I picked it up, thinking I might be able to find some pictures for collages. The book was indeed a catalog of some sort which contained a number of fashion photographs of women, some of which were erotic. However I saw nothing of real interest and I threw the book back down.
As Anderson and I were working on the garbage, Austin (another former high school classmate who later became a lawyer) walked up. He seemed to be reading something and talking to himself as if lost in reverie. I thought I would like to talk with Austin. I had recently had a dream in which Austin had appeared and I hadn't completely understood why he had been in my dream. It would be interesting to talk with Austin to find out what he was doing these days. Maybe then I would be better able to understand why he had been in my dream.
I approached him and engaged him in conversation, but he seemed so abstracted, my talking with him was difficult. He had long black hair which hung down in front to his chin. I also noticed quite a bit of dandruff in his hair. Some of the dandruff was quite thick and almost looked like snow. I was surprised to see his hair so long because I knew he was a lawyer. My hair being so long was understandable because I hadn't been practicing law. However I thought it was good that his hair was long. It made him look rather radical. It must have made quite an impression having long hair like that and being a lawyer also.
As I talked with Austin, his mind seemed elsewhere. When he started to walk away, I decided to go with him and I told Anderson I would be back later. Actually, I thought I might not be back because I might end up talking with Austin. I wanted to discuss some matters with him.
Austin and I began walking along and I asked him about his law practice, "Do you work with somebody?"
He replied, "No."
I asked, "Well do you work in a suite with other lawyers?"
He said, "No."
I asked, "Do you have a secretary?"
He replied, "No."
Since I knew he had been practicing law for a long time, I was surprised his practice wasn't more developed. I asked him what kind of law he practiced and he replied something about governmental policies. I asked, "Well do you do other work that comes in the office?"
He answered, "Yea."
He indicated he did some kind of marital work. But he was involved with work when marriages were beginning rather than when they were ending.
When I asked him where he practiced, he named a town in West Virginia which I had never heard of. I said, "It sounds small."
He replied, "Well it's about fifteen times bigger than this place."
I smiled and said, "That's what I mean—small."
I was quite surprised he was working in West Virginia. I had heard he was working around Ironton, Ohio. I thought he must have taken the bar exam in West Virginia, too. That must have required some study.
We continued walking, finally reached the building where Austin worked and walked in. He didn't seem to mind my staying with him and we boarded the elevator together. The elevator was very large and about 15 other people were on board. As we started up I said, "An interesting person—an intelligent person is always interesting to talk to. "
A couple people in the elevator looked at me and a tall slender woman (about 30 years old) standing next to me looked at me and said, "Karmazov."
She was referring to the fact that the statement I had just made was a quote from the book The Brothers Karmazov by
Dostoievsky. I thought of telling her the character in the book who had made the statement was Smerdiakov, but she didn't ask.When the elevator stopped on Austin's floor, we got off and walked toward his office. I said, "Yea, I'm a lawyer too."
He hadn't realized I was a lawyer and he seemed quite surprised. I explained that I wasn't practicing law right now. I then began explaining where I had practiced law. I told him that I had lived five years in Texas—three years in Waco and two years in Dallas—and that I had started practicing law in Waco by working for another lawyer. I told him that I had worked in banking and large commercial transactions—mostly real estate loans—and that I had read a lot of mortgage agreements.
I was going to continue telling him that although the work had been interesting, I had done as much of it as I wanted to. The work hadn't been drudgery. Austin made a statement about the legal work being "dreamwork." I was unsure whether he was referring to legal work in general or just to the kind of work I had been doing, but I looked at him and replied, "Yea, that's what I do now—dreamwork."
I wanted to talk to him about the dreamwork I had been doing and I especially wanted to get to the dream I had written in which he had appeared. I wanted to find out what he would think about the dream and why he thought he had been in my dream.
I had an idea why he had been in my dream since he, like I, had grown up in Portsmouth and had become a lawyer.
Austin picked up some literature, glanced at it and said, "I read gop."
I was about to say, "I don't read gop."
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