The Warning: The Dead Baby
September 24, 2007 - 2:39pm — Nancy Myers
I walked into a home/shack depending on if you were looking from the inside out or the outside in. It is nowhere and everywhere. A woman is sitting on the floor with a hideously deformed dead baby. I tell her I am sorry about her baby, but doesn't she like my new necklace? The necklace is rope upon rope of gold. She stands up and slaps me in the face. She is enraged. I ask her if I can have the baby and she bitterly gives it to me and tells me that I made this child.
I take the baby with me to a mining executive’s office and tell him that this is our baby, and he slaps me. He tells me that he had nothing to do with making this child.
I leave and take the baby to a parking lot, we are in a bright pink Hummer, and walk to a woman standing by a light pole in the parking lot. She is starving and dressed in rags. I show her the baby and ask if it is hers. She says it used to be and slaps me. I ask her if I should keep the baby. She tells me that I made the baby.
I get in the Hummer and drive to the dealership. I ask a salesman if this is our baby. He slaps me and says he had nothing to do with this child, he has his own to take care of. The baby is getting heavy and I cannot find where it belongs. I start walking with the baby, having left the Hummer because it wasn't the right color.
I go to a farm where they are growing plastic. I ask the farm wife if this is her baby. She slaps me and pushes the baby away. She says this is my baby and she cannot afford an organic baby.
I walk to the grocery store and ask the manager if this is our baby and he slaps me. He says this is not his baby, he doesn't have children. I walk off with the baby singing a lullaby that has distorted words. The baby remains dead.
Questions for discussion, writing:
What warnings are contained in this dream?
Who is responsible for the baby’s death? What does the dream say about blame? About violence?
Most presentations about the state of our world start with the bad news and end with the positive “what you can do.” But this dream came after the jaguar and football dreams. In other words, the “bad” dream followed the “good” dreams. How does that affect its meaning?
Do you identify with the dreamer’s guilt? Does guilt have a role in working for a better world?
How is this dream an allegory for our time? What does it ask of us? The dreamer says she found this dream “grotesque and disheartening” and that she did not think it was prophetic but it showed her own thoughts about the state of the world. Do you agree?
R.H., N.M.
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The Warning: The Dead Baby
