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November, 2013
22 23I'm driving from a meeting but am confused a bit about getting out of the parking lot and drive slowly over a small curb onto the road, instead of using the regular exit (which has no curb) just a few feet to the right. The asphalt of the parking area is fresh, and there are no lines. It is hard to see just where things are. At least my worries about scraping the car's undercarriage on the curb are unfounded. No harm is done, and I continue driving.
11/23/13 - Title: "Buffett for a Day"
I've been invited to an intimate-sized day-long get-together with Warren Buffett at his home. He is to sit with us or stand and talk with us informally for several hours and just do what he does best in such situations, talk enlighteningly, fascinatingly, affably, and incessantly about stocks, businesses, the stock market, and getting good value for the prices one pays. Most of the interaction is to occur out on a sunny lawn in the backyard, his guests seated on an assortment of unfolded lawn chairs that snake around in an "S" sharp (shape). The gathering apparently involves only about 12-15 guests. I'm pleased and surprised to see that the NPR commentator, Nina Totenberg (Cokie Roberts), is one of them, already seated out on the lawn. She waves to me when we see one another.
To participate, we "guests" have had to pay a large fee (though not too great, since our meeting with Buffett still feels like a huge boon and great luck for all of us). Even more of a challenge for me, we've had to get here very early, getting up well before sunrise. I think in my case it was at 5 AM. Not too surprisingly, an important part of the first encounters with the great man himself involves fixing oneself a big mug of coffee (or tea) in his kitchen. While I'm in the process of doing this, hoping as well I'll have enough time for a quick stop at the rest room for no. 1, Buffett comes into the kitchen. We exchange some brief pleasantries, in which his wit is evident (but not remembered), and he makes me feel at home, just one of his lucky guests. Having this short chat is for me more than worth the cost and hassle of the whole day with Buffett, yet the real gems are still ahead.
[For me, Buffett is the world's greatest investor, with a laser-like focus on good value, also an excellent manager of businesses, the kind of manager one wishes ran all companies, and a father-figure, the sort of Dad I wish I had had (though he has been accused of being too involved in his work, which he absolutely loves, and not enough in the lives and concerns of his wife and kids when the latter were growing up.
Of Nina Totenberg, she is a smart, insightful commentator for National Public Radio, an author, well connected in Washington, D.C., and often writes and reports on the judiciary. She was blended in the dream with another NPR commentator, Cokie Roberts. That is, the person I saw in the dream was actually Cokie Roberts, but when I tried to remember her name, I wrote down Nina Totenberg. Later I realized my mistake. So, Roberts should get at least as much "billing" as Totenberg in the meaning of the dream.
Of Roberts, I note she is a popular "talking head" on politics in Washington, is well connected politically through her birth family as well as professionally, and has a style of reportage and journalism that conveys fairness yet great understanding of the whole Washington scene and the long-term implications of the short-term engagements between the different political actors.
5 is of special significance for me: I mentally (compulsively) order most everything in fives, and it is a spiritual symbol, like a madala, as well, which I picture as like the five on a die, with four dots near the corners and one in the middle. In a spiritual meditation group in which I was involved for several years, there were five names of God to be repeated as a mantra. 5 also suggests creativity and waiting.
Washington, D.C. is the most important capital of the most powerful country in the world, yet the politicians there have recently been behaving like squabbling playground children, and if this persists we shall soon lose our preeminent status among nations and be in deep trouble. It was also the most fascinating place when I was growing up. My dad was stationed three times at the Pentagon (another representation of 5) when I was a child, and while we lived in the vicinity we would often talk about politics and visit the museums, the Smithsonian Institute, Washington parks, monuments, etc.
12 in I Ching suggests the great is at an end and that the small will now prevail. 15, however, suggests a good result in one's undertaking. It is also 3 x 5, transformation and waiting, creativity. 12 can also be seen as 3 x 4, or transformation and manifestation in reality.
Snakes have long been a powerful symbol for me of my emotions, often of negative feelings that have been suppressed and then may strike if one is not careful.
Perhaps partly due to thyroid dysfunction - too much x-ray treatment in the throat area when I was an infant, and doctors having used this method to "fix" a too large heart (congestive heart failure) - I feel tired most of the time, seldom have had enough sleep, and so the added energy boost of coffee is welcome, vital it seems if I must get up really early.
If the dream setting or "problem" is that there is to be intimacy (which can be scary) with shadow aspects of myself that are like Warren Buffett and anima aspects of myself like Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts, the apparent resolution is that there can be a witty, relaxing, "Wake up!" energy enhancing rapport with the positive father-figure Buffett plus a natural association with my Nina/Cokie female aspect and that the gems (of life?) are yet to come.]