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November, 2020
29My wife, Frances, and I have arrived from out of town on the campus of a large university. We are a day late for the new semester (fall). Through a small bank office associated with the university, we arrange for renting a small on-campus apartment, then take our few things there. There is some business about a registrar's office. Our applications are accepted almost at once. I'm amazed at how quickly the transcripts show up, faxed in and filed, probably in less than a minute. As Fran and I are settling in at our apartment, I am anxious because we are getting a late start, probably are already behind. Fran is practical and take-charge in her prompt response when I voice this. She says something like: "Nonsense. we'll just take some courses this semester that start later in the week." (It's obviously the first Monday or Tuesday of the new semester when we're discussing this). She goes on in this way: "We'll have a big block each of electives and can do some of those this semester. We just have to rack up about 124 hours each for our degrees." I wonder why we are starting over with undergrad degrees when we both have masters already, but don't question it. It feels like this time, if I just follow Fran's lead, it should all be a lot easier than the first time.
[Of Fran, I'd say she is highly intelligent, has a neat sense of humor, can be argumentative, as, of course, can I, and is a good teacher. Unlike me, she has loads of self-confidence and not a great deal of self-doubt. Like the dream before this, last month, here it appears related to my actually embarking, just last week in fact, on a program of intriguing reading of the lives, philosophies, and insights of a host of people I'd like to be able, in some measure, to emulate or understand, good meditators, leaders of spiritual traditions I've admired from the last century, the Dalai Lama, major contributors to the literature of existentialism, etc.
Whereas in the prior dream my anima character was like a former dream group facilitator, in this case it is my wife, Frances. From the way I've learned to interpret dreams, she is there to show, by example and counter-example, either attitudes and attributes to cultivate in myself or ones to avoid and perhaps wean myself from. It is not about my actual wife.
The dream suggests new learning and potential growth. 124 may be about unity or integration (1), getting the picture or understanding the issues involved (2), and manifestation in reality (4).
Some real-life worry is indicated in the dream anxiety about our being late to start the first semester. There is no question we are qualified for this quest or new program of study. That we are maybe late implies that it is about time(!) to get underway with it. It is not a course of study with much in the way of outside requirements. We'll each have lots of electives or choices about how to proceed. There is also, though, a question of a big block of some type. Writer's block? Feeling intimidated? Not sure enough of myself? Self-absorbed, when empathy, compassion, and interest in or engagement with others would serve me and them better? A tendency still to look for others to blame and so feel I'm a victim, rather than taking responsibility for my own choices when I feel uncomfortable in various circumstances? A hesitancy or uncertainty how - due to a sense of inferiority since childhood - for me to take the lead, as the self with which I identify, whereas my anima has this confidence and ability in spades?]
