NOW You Tell Me!
"Eventually, I began to have a recurring dream about the Apthorp—or, to be accurate, a recurring nightmare. I dreamed I had accidentally moved out of the building, realized it was the worst mistake of my life, and couldn't get my lease back. I have had enough psychoanalysis to know not to take such dreams literally, but it's nonetheless amazing to me that, when my unconscious mind searched for a symbol of what I would most hate to lose, it came up with my apartment."
—Nora Ephron, in this week's New Yorker magazine
Perhaps I should have tried psychoanalysis. It might have saved me lots of money in the long run. Even on the four-day-a-week plan.
To my detriment, I have always been somewhat literal-minded. I take people at their word. (We all know how that works out.) Same with the unconscious. In the mid-1990s, I had a recurring dream that I owned a home in the Berkshires. Being literal-minded, I figured if this is what my subconscious wants, why deny it?
Here's the answer:
Ten years and tens of thousands of dollars later (the excavator dug up my yard to make way for a new septic system) I have learned the expensive way that even if you attain the object of your longing, the desire itself doesn't go away. It just finds something else to attach itself to.
Right now I have dreams of a carefree, unencumbered existence.
—Nora Ephron, in this week's New Yorker magazine
Perhaps I should have tried psychoanalysis. It might have saved me lots of money in the long run. Even on the four-day-a-week plan.
To my detriment, I have always been somewhat literal-minded. I take people at their word. (We all know how that works out.) Same with the unconscious. In the mid-1990s, I had a recurring dream that I owned a home in the Berkshires. Being literal-minded, I figured if this is what my subconscious wants, why deny it?
Here's the answer:
Ten years and tens of thousands of dollars later (the excavator dug up my yard to make way for a new septic system) I have learned the expensive way that even if you attain the object of your longing, the desire itself doesn't go away. It just finds something else to attach itself to.
Right now I have dreams of a carefree, unencumbered existence.
posted by DO at 8:50 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for reminding me why I'm glad I never bought my apartment. Forget that it's probably worth at least 10 times the insider price of the late '80s. I just can't deal with home repair. Or perhaps with responsibility (I'm not into analysis).
If all dreams were true, though, I'd still be in school facing the final in the class I forgot I was taking, looking for that bathroom that's not available.
It's been a week since DO was last seen at his own blog. Did he accidentally fall into the septic tank...
OR WAS HE PUSHED?
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