A dream about the progressive movement

Guest post by practical mystic’s husband, continued from yesterday

Here is my 3-part dream of Friday night/Saturday morning.

1. I arrived by car at a state park or natural area near a lake. I could not see the lake, only a large grove of pines covering a high sand dune. The dune was exposed since a large portion of the trees had recently been clear cut close to the ground and cleanly removed. It seemed that the cutting of the trees was done for ecological reasons to bring the area back to its more original state of health. I wandered around this area, and went inside a building that housed some exhibits regarding the area. It seemed dark, barren, and empty.  

2. I found myself in a separate group of buildings. In one of these we found a lot of old pieces of hardware and stuff that needed to be sorted or disposed of. It was a difficult assignment, not a lot of fun, but still it wasn’t easy to just throw the stuff away, because it wasn’t clear that it even belonged to me. I don’t know who it belonged to.

3. In another empty, dreary indoor warehouse-like space, I found a dead mouse neatly lying on top of a flat railing. I had been involved in the death of this mouse, which was so young, with hardly any fur; it could hardly have left its first nest.

I had gone to sleep and woken up thinking about Saturday’s demonstrations and the ideas in yesterday's post. I think the dream was related.

The clearing off of the sand dunes seems like a very positive development. And then there’s the heavy job of getting rid of old stuff. Perhaps the dream is speaking very directly to the current political situation. The current political party structure is so inadequate at addressing the dire financial situation and injustices in our country and world at this present time.  The progressives and liberals that I so closely identify with most of the time seem stuck. The Democratic Party isn’t sure it wants to side with them anymore, unless the polls convincingly tell them to do so.  It took Egyptians forty years or longer to overcome the tyranny of Mubarak, and that was with a majority. How can we expect to see genuine change when we don’t even have a majority among the poor and lower middle class?

What I am trying to say is that maybe we need to try something new, cut back the invasive plant species cluttering our view. Maybe we need to find new coalitions, new ways to reach people, and to lay the groundwork for a better way forward.

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practical mystic adds: Way cool! I love this dream and your interpretation. I’m wondering about that poor little dead mouse. I hesitate to take the shamanic interpretation too literally, making it about our over-attention to detail and failure to see the big picture or vision. That may be part of it. But it also seems like the death of the fragile, just-born hope of the 2008 elections. It’s so sad! And we’re complicit.