Hi, bloggers...

Richard here, your Blog editor...

Artist Ani Rose...

of www.livingstonesunlimited.com...

has made some insightful comments about Matt's Thanksgiving-night dream.

Matt enjoyed Ani’s comment and asked for it to be reposted in its entirety here on the Blog’s main page.

His response is below Ani’s post.

Enjoy!

Richard

Hi Matt -- and thanks, Richard.

I'm going to go ahead and comment off the cuff, but also give it a day or so and maybe come back with more thought.

This dream certainly speaks to me of the frustration and near-despair of people like you,  Matt,  who have such a strong vision and clarity, but who face myriads of ignorance and the seeming genetic inability to "get it."

And still you want to do it because your own makeup is designed that way. It's simply not easy.

I am thinking about the four who were in your dream, in the room with your daughter Sheila - for two reasons:

One, it reminds me of the Christian Biblical stoy where God's own frustration wants to do in a whole nation and one man bargains down and down, "but, Lord, for ten righteous, would you save.... for five?  for one?  For one righteous person finally it was worthwhile to save the whole."
Perhaps the barking dog is one righteous person.  Can we turn to see the one person in front of us ALWAYS - as meaningful enough to save an entire nation?

The other thought is more Gestalt.  All the figures in any of our dreams can also be interpreted as some part of ourselves. Sheila -- something about Sheila -- the Sheila part of Matt - was able at least to find these four....

Perhaps there are voices like yours, Matt, coming directly from the more feminine/femininst side of culture...

Maybe the modern language of eco-feminists is correct, THEY, and their manner, is the voice required to save the planet.

Susan Griffin, M. Bowlen who wrote of the goddess in every woman and man, also wrote of how the earth is needing the rise (maybe return) of more feminine ways.

(Many many women are saying this - recognizing it not out of anger or oppression, but clarity that the OTHER ways are not working...)

Supposedly, the island of Malta was inhabitated at some point by whole communities without weapons... Supposedly, more and more anthropologists are realizing that the earliest forms of art and culture we find - depict some awareness of the meaningfulness of the feminine as a guide.

Goddess figures are found all over the world.  This does not take away from maleness or men. It recognizes that the feminine aspects of all men and all women may be the ultimate answer, the vision which saves.

And my personal thinking is that this feminine way would have turned around to the child who needed a washroom, and made she he got there.

One person at a time. It's certainly a direction.

In the end, Matt, I am grateful to consider what you are asking. I believe you and your dream are definitely giving something of yourself to the whole.

I do have hope. I appreciate hearing yours.It is possible to live peacefully with each other. I think for most of us who do not speak to thousands, one person at a time is the best way to live it.

I'll keep this in heart and mind a few days and come back to see what else people have said, and if I have more to add.

Thank you.  Many cultures bring “BIG” dreams to the community, because they are meant for community.. If any of us do NOT give over something so "big" we would die of too much fertile soil being stuck in one place and not allowed to thrive.  Drown, or go crazy.

Plenty of “crazy," institutionalized people have profound wisdom, but without being heard or listened to - without a venue of art or speaking - they go crazy from carrying too much.

In a few days then, with care and gratitude,
Ani Rose

Matt responds:

Ani, I would like to post your comments in total.

They speak to me of one of the meditations I encountered after posting "The Dream."

I listened to the soundtrack to Out of Africa, composed by John Barry, and it spoke to me of the love for the earth, just as you have spoken about the femininity of the earth.

It spoke about Mother Nature and how, no matter how good your mother is perceived, or how bad, it’s always nurturing to the individual, so it seems part of our gene structure and who and what we are.

When we talk about the family, it’s usually about our mother.  When we talk about the planet, we talk about Mother Earth.

I believe music is the voice of the spirit that interprets the questions and allows us to enter those doors usually closed to us, but as we go into a near-trance state with musical scores, they enhance and magnify our dreams and interpretations of life through poetry, music, literature, and all the arts.

The thing that kept coming to me was the metaphor of Mother Earth.  You have spoken very eloquently to this concept.

Thank you!

Matt