The dream this morning begins in a military office. I see a U.S. Army general talking to a female U.S. Navy Corpsman. There is a terrorist attack taking place in an American city. The Corpsman is arguing with the general to commit to a rescue operation. A factory in this occupied city has hostages. The hostages are, in fact, mainly myself and my infant daughter. The General has refused to risk his troops on a rescue op. The Corpsman marches out of the office in disgust and I see her walking toward the city. She is determined to go it alone if necessary.
The scene then moves to a office inside the occupied factory. I am standing there with my 6 month old daughter in my arms. There are two terrorists standing guard in front of the door leading outside. A short swarthy man enters, bizarrely I see he is carrying a tuna fish by the tail with his left hand and cradled in his right arm is a Japanese tuna sword. Apparently he intended to pass through the office to a nearby kitchen to butcher the fish. I seize this opportunity to attack the man. I wrench the sword out of his arm and I chop off his left arm. The men outside hear his blood curdling scream and come storming in. A melee then ensues between me and the terrorists all the while I am holding my daughter in one arm and a sword in the other trying to protect her amidst this chaos. The dream ends here and becomes another.
The next dream finds me in Alaska. I am witnessing a re-enactment of the Captain Cook landing in Cook Inlet Alaska in 1778. I see British longboats paddling to shore. There are numerous modern support ships and vessels watching and recording the event. The water has become quite rough. Some of the longboats boats are becoming swamped.
On one longboat I see one British seaman re-actor manning the oars and an officer with his tri-cornered hat facing him standing in the bow. The front half of the boat is flooded and is about to sink. A small tugboat-like support ship motors up alongside and the officer takes a dignified steps from the his longboat onto the deck of the support ship. A wave crashes over the deck. the officer is nonplussed. He pulls out a cell phone from a vest pocket. He speed dials the Coast Guard and holds the phone high and shouts defiantly, "I got signal bitches!". Then I wake up laughing.
The incident with the terrorists and the tuna sword reminds of a video I watched many months ago about a famous Japanese butcher who fillets up huge tunas for high priced clients in Japan. He was very precise and professional with that sharp sword he owned. He recounted a true story of a butcher that used his blade on some yakuza dudes that wanted to extort money out of him. Clearly that video has lain dormant in my subconscious and has bubbled up in the form of that dream. No shock that I am very protective of my daughter.
The second part of this dream with the boats is interesting in that it is the continuation of a nautical theme that has surfaced in my dreams of late. I am starting to think I miss my old experiences at sea from back when I served in the U.S. Coast Guard. I never thought I would nostalgic for those old times and places, but I do. Water has much to do with dreams and emotions. They go hand in hand.
What to make of all this in it's totality? It seems to be a response to fear both real and imagined. There is perhaps a battle going on with my shadow self. There is a confrontation with the violence inherit in myself and inherit in the natural world. It is kill or be killed within and without. I will not go quietly into that good night.
" Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying light." Dylan Thomas 1914 - 1953
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