Dream of: 21 October 1986 "Supreme Court Clerk"

I had gone to work as a clerk for the US Supreme Court although I did not seem to have any specific duties. I was talking with one of the justices at work one day and told him I liked reading legal cases. He gave me a case which was going to come before the court which had not yet been decided and he told me to go read it. I read the case, liked it, returned, and told the justice about it. He told me many cases were coming before the court and that he was not able to read all of them and when people would ask him about the cases, he could not remember them. He gave me two more cases and as I was leaving, he said that when I came back he would like for me to help him write something. Apparently, he wanted me to start writing part of the opinions of some cases the Supreme Court was deciding.

I walked out into the hallway where I saw a tall, attractive, slender, blonde woman (about 30 years old). I admired the woman and I was spiritually attracted to her. She had also read the case I had just finished reading and she asked me what I had thought about it and what the issue of the case had been. I wanted to know first what she had thought about it and I said, "Well you first."

She responded, "No, you first."

I said, "Well, really I can't remember. It's been ten minutes since I read it."

My memory was so bad that within ten minutes I had completely forgotten the case. So, she began talking about the case, which had something to do with freedom of speech, although I was not exactly sure what.

I resolved to read the case again and try to understand it. I walked into another room, pulled out the case, and began reading it. When I read the first sentence, it seemed to have some little pictures of people mixed in with the words. I tried to make all the symbols of the sentence fit together and I had to read the sentence several times before the words made any sense as symbols. The symbolism of words was striking to me—how that words were really just symbols. What an intricate process it was for the human mind to actually fit the word-symbols together.

Apparently, I had not completely mastered the process of reading. I did not seem to be able to fit the words together and remember them so I could form something in my mind that made sense. Perhaps I was becoming senile.

I continued reading and finally, pictures did begin forming in my mind. The case apparently had something to do with some immigrants who had come to the United States. A picture of an old, hewn-log cabin formed in my mind. The cabin was somewhere out in the country and was used as a memorial, but the case itself was a modern day case taking place in a city and had to do with the city's somehow repressing people's right to speak. I was unsure how the log cabin fit into the scheme.

Many weeds seemed to be growing around the cabin. From one of the logs of the cabin a large tree had grown. It looked something like a banana tree but in a way resembled a large vine. Other vines were hanging in mid-air near the tree without actually being in it. The tree was called a "planton" tree. I thought "planton" was the Spanish word for "banana." Some round objects, which appeared to be coconuts, were also hanging from the tree.

I seemed to be grasping the case, but I still could not seem to put my finger on the actual issue. I knew that when I wrote about the case I wanted to limit what I said to the actual issue.

As I tried to decipher the case, I also began visualizing one of the justices of the Supreme Court lying in a bed in the city where the case was taking place. Another man was lying in bed with him and they were both reading cases. They also had other books there concerning the case. Apparently, they had gone to the city to investigate the case. There had only been one room in the hotel there, so they had both had to stay in it, although they had not liked the fact.

The judge was finally ready to go to sleep and he indicated to the other man (who was actually the judge's assistant) that he should turn off the light. It occurred to me that the judge somewhat resembled the judge I had been working with and that his assistant somewhat resembled me.

The assistant indicated to the judge that the judge needed to get his law books out of the bed. He did so and the light was then turned off.