Mount Darlstar,
An official TVeto has been filed to make you stop watching the boob tube before bed (I wrote it myself while wine was injected directly into my bloodstream via my IVino 2.0, patent-still-pending 2018*). It is a Thursdaddy night as I’m writing this, and just to get into the spirit with yew, I’m having myself a glass of adult grape juice.
I found this dream downright terriflying! Between losing your beau, fending off this mosquito of a dude who comes back with a KNIFE, to ya know getting kidnapped, this one’s an 11 out of 10 on the Newtmare Scale of Perkycutlass Estimation.
Having read a few of the same books you have (shout-out Inbound Book Club *raises foam finger*), I’m getting a real Handmaid’s Tale vibe from this dream sequence. So, I thought it wise to frame it around that context, the book still fairly fresh in my Jenninoggin. Shall we?
You Lose Michaelob
Just like Offred loses her SO in HT.
You said this has happened a lot in your dreams, and according to Tony “the Tiger” Crisp, it’s a pretty common dream for married women to have. You love Michaelwave and the fact that he *could* disappear is just an anxiety that comes to be when you have a deep connection and caring for someone.
Trading Places
I wanted to take a sec to nod on over to this whole “3 places at once” shenanigan. Do you feel scattered in waking life? (I sure as hell do, so), I thought thinking on that could mean something in itself.
In Handmaid’s the main character’s sense of place is a big deal. She:
- Remembers her home that she’ll never see again
- Analyzes every square inch of her new “room” that she refuses to call her own at the beginning of the book
- Goes to the market and feels the Eyes following her
The eclipsed version of your dream telescopes down to some pretty distinct places and I wanted to break them down:
Vacation Station
At port, everything starts out feeling very “the before times” if we’re relating back to HT. But still, there’s the sensation that you guys are going to part ways. Your cruise slaycations encompass some really great memories that you and Michaelphone have had together, and your nightmare knows this is the rawest of raw places to pluck him from your side.
University of I Can’t Find My Husband
Being back at an institution of higher learning represents your individual potential, or personal advancement. It might also link to something important you’re learning; something important you have to offer.
Tony the Tiger. He’s GRRRRREAT.
Maybe since you and Mickelback were together in college, your subconscious took the whole “looking for Michaelob” thing literally and tried to search back for him in a Calvin Coolidge memory. Joke’s on you, subconscious, he’s missing remember? Not sure if this is right, but it might be something to ponder, especially since the looking for MW thread prevails.
Putting the Lab in Labyrinth
According to my expert googling skills, seeing a white room in a dream can mean a lot of things. What struck me particularly was white rooms as an indicator for life situations where you’re confronting a lot of negativity. Like this one, lol? I know you said it felt clinical or sterile, cold, joyless even. Which probably reflects how you’d feel without Michaelin Star, eh?
Shop ‘Til You Drop
Ah yes, the mall. Maybe you’re shopping for a new dress for an upcoming event or picking up Chick-fil-A to bring home to your parents (just me? K). Mall symbology always kind of throws me, I think because you have to go by what it means to you. The fact that malls are really fading away adds a piece of societal commentary, too. Shopping can represent attempts to make a good impression on someone, or your relationship with the public in general.
The good news: You know what you want, you’re just shopping for Michaelob in all the wrong places. Maybe your brain was like “haha, where to buy new husband? Where you get new tennis shoes. Mall.”
And then your brain was like, “Mackenzie gets mauled at the mall: Here’s a dude with a butterfly knife.”
Now that’s a knoife!
What’s terrifying and so Handmaid’s is the fact that the shoppers don’t pay attention to you while you shout out for help. Instead:
They lope across the mall’s tile floors like cows grazing in a field, their arms full of shopping bags.
You, Mackeral Writertrout Extraordinaire, in the post before this one
(I l o v e d this imagery btw, it gave me Exit West vibes, heart eyes). Here you are helplessly looking for your husband in a public place and it’s completely acceptable for this dude to come up to you and cut you with a knife??? *Shudders for all eternity*
As evidenced by the appearance of my Shun knife in Dream #1, I’ve seen my fair share of knives in dreams, but usually, I’m the one wielding it.
What if a butterfly were made out of butter?
In Buddhist culture, getting cut in a dream actually represents learning, in relation to cutting the bonds of ignorance. It also begs the question, what do you need to cut out of your life? Or, what’s cutting into your time or taking too much from you? Alternate translation: Life w/o Michaelob hurts.
I found it interesting that the knife was a butterfly knife, as butterflies are a powerful symbol for transformation.
Hide & Seeking
Onto the staircase. A flashlight, of course, is associated with shedding light on a certain issue. What’s fascinating, though, is that in the dark, when someone’s chasing you, the opposite is true, a flashlight gets you found.
Is there something in waking life you’re seeking that maybe requires a different approach? Or something you’re hiding from?
According to my home dog, T. Rice Crispies, stairs leave an impression early on. In adulthood they can indicate:
Going up or down in life in your own estimation; so a shift in some way; gaining a new skill, or facing a challenge. Many dreams of climbing stairs include feelings of high anxiety. But the difficult feelings might not be due to danger, but to finding or realizing things that radically change the way you see yourself or the world.
^^Literally what I consider every time I descend the spiral staircase at work.
The Storage Wars of Your Subconscious
You remember that show, where those appraisers would bet on what was in a storage unit before getting to see what was inside? I got really into that show for a stint.
All of these doors in your drimmer are another symbol that are just downright captivating. A door can represent transition from one stage in life to another, or symbolize boundaries and opportunities in your own psyche. In your dream, the doors you opened mostly led to storage closets. Is there an idea or project you’ve had in the back of your mind that should perhaps make its way out of storage?
Kenzie-napped
OK so. Clearly, these foolish Kenzie-nappers didn’t know who they were dealing with. You sneakeroonied right out of their grips, like the sneaky girl butterfly that you are (I just read an article about how butterflies act cute to steal turtles’ tears – you should see the tabs I have open rn). And you pretty effortlessly escape with this woman in white.
I gotta say this escape scene reminds me again of how various characters in Handmaid’s got away, particularly in the final pages. Was Offred going to her demise, or finally a way out of all of this? Striking, too, is the cargo van, which was also the preferred mode of transportation in HT.
I love that amidst the frenzy of your escape, you stop down to notice that your passport’s transformed into Michaelob’s notebook, this detail was awfully sweet. Is he communicating with you to tell you he’s okay on the outside somewhere? Were the gummy bears stuck in the pages still fresh? You’re getting closer, and this is the talisman you need to do what must be done.
Not soon after this, thanks to that leftover strawberry smoothie (a flavor that can represent passion and love), you’re able to blind your fears and surge forward in the nick of time. You know what I think about this chase scene in its entirety and that feeling of negativity hot on your trail? It’s a metaphor, again, for the disappearance of Mr. Michaelob.
My hot takes: Strawberry smoothies are delicious. You can officially tell your family you’re NOT the Lindbergh baby. The next time I see Michael, I’m going to bolt him to the floor.
Please do let me know how I did. How’s my dream analyzing? Call 555-Re-Re-Dream-5
All of my love,
Jennyflip of the Dense Chilean Shrublands