ABOUT FRIENDSHIPS

This one is a long one, but it’s very revealing about the dreamer, so it’s worth examining.  It will be done in two parts.  I am also going to deal with this dream section by section.  The blue  section is the dream which I've selected to interpret/analyze this time around.

The dream starts off at work at Hollywood Inc.  The building is different, and I think it’s actually the El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Blvd.  I go inside and everything is more high tech and fancy than in real life.  I sit next to this girl named Fran.  In real life, this is a co-worker who is very touchy-feely with people and constantly enters their personal bubble.  She seems to touch my arm or rub my back at least once a day, but I don't flinch or make a big deal or react to it.  It kind of annoys me, but I can tell that she is desperate for attention and affection and is oblivious to her rude intrusions into people's private spaces.  In the dream, she and I are talking and it feels like friendship.  I think this is because I don't have any opportunity to talk to anyone else, so I settle for her.

The Dreamer views her workplace as an isolated aspect of her life… one relatable to movies.  In other words, soda, popcorn, hot dogs and LOSING ONESELF in a FAKE REALITY for entertainment purposes.  She expects work to be a fun, entertaining place where she can escape the real world.  This is an interesting expectation.  Generally, one’s workplace is a serious place of sober responsibility and working hard in order to earn one’s paycheck in order to pay the rent, which is usually a serious matter.  In fact, to some people, being employed is a matter of survival, and having no job usually leads to extreme stress and breakdown.  Even working in a theater environment isn’t necessarily all fun and games either.  People’s mess have to be cleaned up; bathrooms have to be processed; and it’s not necessarily fun to stand behind the food counter all day dealing with grumpy, picky, obnoxious customers.

But life is what you make it, and our Dreamer wants work to be fun.  So far, it’s not cooperating.  In the dream, she sits next to Fran, a needy, annoying co-worker, but Dreamer is kind enough not to reject her, even though Dreamer doesn’t necessarily want to pursue the friendship.  In fact, she readily admits it’s because there isn’t anyone else more interesting, so she “settles” for Fran.

I get a text message from a movie studio saying that there will be a free movie screening and I can bring one guest.  Since I know my best pal, Lorna, has to work, I invite Fran. She is super excited and surprised because never once have I shown interest in being her friend. I try to stay upbeat and positive, so I say, "Hey, why not!" She smiles and says she'll meet me there at 6:30 PM.  I didn't tell her where it was going to be, so I'm suspicious as to whether she will really show up.

So Dreamer already expects her work environment to be a fun one, but now she wants even MORE FUN by going to a movie.  In other words, she wants fun within the fun… or double fun. But she doesn’t want to experience double fun on her own, and so since her best friend isn’t available, she invites Fran, even though she isn’t really seeking a true friendship with this co-worker.  She doesn’t trust that Fran’s “yes” is sincere, but she’s willing to wait and see what transpires.

After I leave work, its time for me to catch the train.  I'm supposed to take the Red Line, but I am having difficulty because there are several Red Lines and all the train tracks keep rotating.   I know this sounds strange, but the Train Station actually looks like a mall with several floors and loud music and flashing lights and other gimmicks to keep people interested.  Inevitably, I get on the wrong train, so I end up in Santa Ana.  When I realize I'm going the wrong way, I immediately get out and find myself inside a government building.  It's a training facility for the FBI or CIA or something.

And the next portion of the dream is symbolic of her “inner” true feelings about what friendship entails.  Her conscience wants her to examine what friendship means to her, so her psyche sends her a dream.  The Red Line and the Blue Line tracks are symbolic of the pathways friendship takes.  Is it a “heart” thing (red) or a “mind” thing (blue).  The tracks rotate because pathways to friendship are multiple and complex.  A friendship which starts out because two people enjoy the same movies and love the same books and are both Democrats can easily segue to a friendship built on the foundation of two people admiring and respecting personality traits in each other.  They intermix and exchange values; they rotate from one aspect to the next. 

Friendship can be like a mall with several floors, loud music, flashing lights and other gimmicks to keep people interested.  The commitment is on different levels, from casual where you just see movies together once in a while, or very committed, where you’re even romantically involved.  There can be loud raucous fun, dancing and drinking… or something quieter, like doing crossword puzzles together. 

Our Dreamer gets on the wrong train.  Her conscience is telling her, “Whoa, girl, you’re on the wrong path to friendship if you’re only asking Fran to go to the movies because there’s no one else available and so you ‘settle.’  AND she annoys you?  Hmmm.  Not a good basis for friendship at all.”  But she’s trying to make the journey.  She ends up in Santa Ana, famous for the winds which break limbs off the trees and knock plants off the terrace rails.  Not the kind of friendship she wants, so she gets off the train.  Now she finds herself in a “secret/spy” type of organization.

I'm asked to join the training, and I decide to go through with it for the heck of it… at least until they realize I don't belong there.  So I am introduced to 7 other recruits and each one is very different from the other.  One guy is Chris Penn (Sean Penn's brother… he was the chubby guy in the original Footloose).  This guy named Marvin that I used to work with, and a bunch of girls of various sizes who all seem fragile and out of place.  The first part of the training is to inspect everyone's room and find out who the "Mole" is.

I would venture to say that the “secret/spy” type of friendship is one which is protective and supportive.  FBI and CIA, after all, are known for doing whatever it takes to SAVE our country.  They may do terrible things (like kill people), but it’s all in the line of duty… to save/defend/secure our country and its people.

Our Dreamer’s psyche now creates a scenario for her to explore friendship with elements of protective and defensive intentions.  "7" in Numerology represents the Philosopher... one who is thoughtful and introspective and likes to analyze and understand life in all its permutations.  So, Dreamer is being asked to "think" through the process of friendship.

First of all in any group, there will be different “types” of people – chubby or skinny, talky or silent, friendly or grumpy, happy or sad, etc.  It’s interesting that Dreamer sees all the girls as “fragile and out of place.”  In other words, she doesn’t view herself as fragile or out of place.  Also consider that perhaps "7" represents 7 aspects of the Dreamer seeking friendship.  Or perhaps she has 7 requirements of a relationship before she will consider it a friendship.  It can mean any or all of these things.

The trainee's first assignment is to find out who the “Mole” is among them.  From seeing movies, we all know the Mole is the spy who has infiltrated a group or organization and pretends to be a loyal member of the group... but who actually is collecting information to use against the group or organization.  

It’s a given in this dream that one of the Members of the team is a Mole, so this suggests that the Dreamer has a core belief that friendship inevitably includes BETRAYAL. 

I immediately suspect one of the girls whose bedroom is completely made up with decorations, a bed, a desk, pictures on the walls, etc.  I suspect her because there is no way she had enough time to set up all that.  In addition, if this is only a training session, why is she getting so comfortable.  I run into some of the guys, and I tell them my theory.  They all ignore me and suspect each other.  I ask them why they're not even looking at the girls' rooms, and they say that girls aren't smart enough to be Moles.  That's when I decide to be a Mole.  I get angry and frustrated that I'm being underestimated, so I plot to betray everyone.

Dreamer immediately suspects a female.  We have to wonder if her experience is that females aren’t trustworthy.  The fact that her suspect in this dream is the suspect because she’s established – with fully furnished room, filled with personal mementos and accessories – suggests a few things. 

First, it explains to us why she doesn’t trust Fran, who is, after all, touchy-feely and always getting into people’s emotional bubble.  Fran acts “fully furnished”… equipped with built-in “friendly” traits… touching arms, rubbing backs.   She has no problem entering and sharing people’s “personal bubbles” … as if she already knows a person a long time.  Dreamer immediately decides that the girl who comes “fully furnished” is the Mole… the one who spies on peers (co-workers and friends) to ultimately betray them.

Dreamer also has a core belief that males don’t make good friends either… they treat females as inferior to them.  So Dreamer has decided that neither males nor females are worthy of her friendship under the “defend-and-support” code.  She's angry and frustrated as a result of this belief.  As a standard defense mechanism against being betrayed by others, she decides she’s the one who’ll betray first, before she herself is betrayed.

Meanwhile I hear from my friend Lorna, who tells me that she got off work early and wants to go to the movie with me after all.  I tell her that I'd love that, but I'm not sure where it is and I refuse to get her lost.  I tell her about the rotating train tracks and she decides to let me figure it out on my own, she says, "I believe in you. Have fun at the movie."

And yet, she has a friend, “Lorna.”  How did Lorna prove herself to be worthy of her trust?  Note Dreamer’s protective stance, “…I refuse to get her lost.”  We have to ask ourselves, what type of person is this Lorna that Dreamer applies the “defend and support” code to her?  And in the next sentence, we see the answer.  Lorna may not understand Dreamer’s conflicted issues about friendship (the rotating track), but she has enough wisdom to let Dreamer figure it out on her own, and further, she shows support by saying, “I believe in you.”  And, even further, she understands Dreamer’s need for “fun”, and tells her to “have fun at the movie.”

No wonder Dreamer trusts Lorna.  Certainly Fran, as fully furnished of personal furniture that she is, hasn’t really done anything to merit the same kind of “defend and support” type of friendship.

(... TO BE CONTINUED)

 (END OF PART I)