Well, I'm going to go out on a limb with these thoughts. Please do with them as you will...
"In my dream, I am living with Kathy in a community home. It is a beautiful place and we are truly enjoying ourselves."
= Representing the joy you find in your life now, I suppose (seems obvious, I guess).
"We hear a lot of fanfare outside and we all run out to see what is going on and there is a sort of parade going down the street."
A big, loud, hard-to-ignore, non-traumatic event that pulls you out of your usual routine, bringing you into contact with someone (or even several people) outside of your current routine.
"By the way, the front yard is an overgrown beautiful garden surrounded by a low fence covered in vines."
This seems to be the "fruit" of the Spirit's current work in you (and your family), including powerful connections with Villagers and Teen Challenge folks. A low fence is an aesthetic barrier, not a defensive one. It is a token boundary between yourself and the rest of the world. The fence could represent the parameters of your Self. It is interesting that Prince Charles leaves the "world" and comes within the psychological safety and beauty of the fence to speak with you.
"In an open car in this parade going by, Prince Charles is waving and smiling."
Charles strikes me as a personification of the (aging) modern age. He's a "modern" man, a strange holdover from another time, who doesn't seem to have relevance to people today. He has a "nice" life (materially speaking), but despite his celebrity, despite the parade, he is not a cultural mover-and-shaker. He seems like more of a follower, really. He seems compelled to leave a place of refuge to run off to join back in the parade. As lost as he is, he will not stand to be separated from the parade, which has become his so-called identity. He is that too-typical celebrity, with no tangible power to change the public world, and incapable of managing even his private life well. He reminds me of the "rich young ruler" Jesus had that sad interaction with.
He might represent a specific person, someone you know of, but don't know personally or don't know intimately. (An executive of a company you used to work for? A pastor who's losing touch with his larger congregation?) He's someone with a big discrepancy between the public persona and the private self, who doesn't know how to walk away from the pomp and circumstance and just be authentic.
"We cheer and clap and wave back and he has the car pull over in front of our home. He gets out and walks over to me and shakes hands and asks if he can speak to me privately. I ask him if he'd like to come in and he agrees. When we get inside we begin to talk and he tells me how sad he is because his first wife was killed and now he has remarried Camilla (sp?) and she is also dying. He is in deep sorrow and pain and he asks if I can help him. I try to comfort him but he is inconsolable. When I touch him, I feel his shame and pain and suddenly I get this great idea and I run over to my desk. In the desk is a Village CD (Rough and Uncut), but it is a new and improved high tech version. It has a DVD included with music videos and other bells and whistles that make it super cool. If I give him the CD, I know he will be healed. I hesitate though, because I realize it is our only copy and he doesn't need anything this cool. This doesn't feel selfish in my dream, it just feels right. He just needs the original CD. The plain original CD will heal him, but I don't have any in the house."
Hmm, this seems to be about the modernist thing, that need to offer concrete objects, specific and concise answers. That (admirable) drive to fix what is broken. Maybe you are (or will be) tempted to think that you'll figure out a better way to help people, later on. Maybe you are (or will be) tempted to think that you might have forgotten where you put the answer to their pain. Maybe you're tempted to think that going off to look for that "answer," that "fix" to the problem is what you need to do, that it's worth the price of putting people/relationships on hold.
"I search for a bit and then remember that I have some in the trunk of my car so I tell him to wait and I run outside and up to the corner where there is a huge mall. I try to think about where I parked my car (Now there is a nightmare for you), and I can't remember. I run toward the side where I believe I parked it, but I don't see it. I'm tempted to run through the mall to the other side, but I don't dare because I might miss the car and instead I continue to run around the outside of it. I'm getting exhausted, but I have to get the CD for Prince Charles. I feel like a man who must complete the mission at any cost."
You'll burn yourself out looking for that thing... Are you sure it's what Charles needs? It's what the mall-people think they need, but I don't think it's what Charles (the person on your heart) needs.
"When I come around the third side of the mall I see an outdoor food court with lots of people milling around. All the people are dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns. They are very friendly and are asking me if they can help me and if they can have a CD, too, As I run through them they reach out their hands toward me and I want to help them, but I just don't have the time. I tell them I'll come back for them, but first I have to help Prince Charles. I find my car and grab the CD's from the trunk and turn and run toward our group home. From a distance, I see Prince Charles get back in the car and drive away and I am so disappointed. I weep because I feel like I've let him down. I was so close to helping him, but I didn't make it in time.
The mall = mainstream American culture? Mainstream American Christian culture? It seems that so much of American Christianity has turned into a marketing thing, a how-can-we-sell-Christianity enterprise. Steve's mentioning the outer temple court is an interesting connection. You're on a desperate spiritual quest, and the materialistic mall ("stuff") is getting in your way...you're afraid to run through it, though! You're desperately looking for your car...it could be a symbol of freedom, symbol of a way of getting where you want to go. What does "car" mean to you, Rod? For many guys, it seems to be an external symbol of their success, their pseudo-identity. Do you relate to that? It's like your true self is in the house, the garden, and you're looking for where you might have forgotten where you left it....(???)
The well-dressed mall people, by extension, seem to be mainstream American Christians. Maybe they're the "first run" of the banquet invitees (like I suggested the other night)... they're already in black tie, when they should be wearing sweats or something... They're hanging out in the wrong place, wrong time, and they don't seem to know how to fit in appropriately with their environment. :-)
"I turn back toward the food court and the well dressed folks are slowly walking toward me with their hands out. They are smiling and saying, 'We'll take that, we need that. Please help us.' This feels right and good and it is also where I wake up."
The well-dressed folks are making me think of those zombie cartoons (!?!) Anway, they seem to be good at getting your attention, at making you feel comfortable and forgetting your pain over "Charles" (whoever he happens to be). I'm not sure I trust those well-dressed folks. |