The Hunt For Red Fish, Blue Fish

I woke up this morning from a dream that I was a submarine commander. Kristen Bell was my first officer (and no, she did not ask me to build a snowman, so let it go!). We were trying to get safely past enemy submarines rumored to be using a new torpedo that couldn’t be distracted by acoustic noisemakers. Not to worry, of course. The key to survival in a submarine is to not be detected in the first place. If they’re launching torpedoes things are already out of control.

Initially we were doing fine, slipping quietly down river (!?) with as little noise as possible. But then we encountered a problem. Someone had built a low concrete dam or artificial falls across the river. It wasn’t that big, and if we could find a way past it we would be able to use the noise it made as cover to slip away to the other side of the river and escape. My first officer and I got out to explore the top of the dam (because that wouldn’t attract any attention, certainly!) and realized all we had to do was climb down and get back into the river. Before I could make sense of that one my alarm went off.

I mentioned the dream to my wife later, discussing how our subconscious can put so much work into making some parts of our dreams realistic while totally ignoring the incongruities in other aspects–like what submarines are doing in a river in the first place, or how having two officers climb down the front of a dam would somehow transport the entire submarine. She told me she’d heard that dreams were our subconscious trying to work through problems, but that explanation has never made much sense to her considering how her dreams have so little to do with anything recognizable.

I’d have to agree. I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out how that particular dream corresponds to anything in my life, even as an analogy or symbolism. The best I can come up with is this is Dr. Suess’ fault. I’m still harboring intense emotional trauma from having read McElligot’s Pool as a child. The only way to release that subliminal trauma is to safely navigate the length of that river, but being McElligot’s Pool, I’ll need a submarine. And Kristen Bell, as the voice of Anna in “Frozen”, represents that child-like innocence I’m trying to save, but also holds the key to reaching the end of the river safely. The relentless pressures of adulthood are represented by the enemy submarines–their jaded maturity will make it difficult to simply make a lot of noise to distract them. The dam represents the threshold of adulthood; it’s not something I can get around with my submarine. But if I’m willing to risk vulnerability while keeping my inner child close at hand to cross that barrier alone then I’ll be able to somehow retain my submarine and, using adulthood as camoflage, escape the pressures of adulthood.

Or something like that.

Somehow I don’t feel any wiser here. Rather than dreams being my subconscious’ attempt to sort out my problems for me, I suspect they’re really more of just a subliminal writing prompt where you go through your purse (or brain, in this case), pick five things at random and make a story out of them.

Either that or it’s some sort of oracular vision, and I need to call Kristen Bell and convince her to join the navy. She’d make a darn fine officer!