The Giant Giraffe

Wow. . .I realize that it's been a while
since I've had a good dream
to add to this blog. ..
.. .this should be worth the wait!

Last night,
I dreamt that I was with someone named Anne.
She wasn't my mother,
but was an older woman, a motherly type.

We were at some sort of street festival.
There were all sorts of booths and stands
lining the streets of the neighborhood we were in.
. . . Vendors, Food, Art, Music. . .
. . just an atmosphere of festivity.
There were a lot of people walking around.

We (Anne and I) needed to get to another area.
As I recall,
we needed to walk three blocks down
and then go to the left.
I'm not sure what that area was,
but I got the impression that it was a restricted area,
but that the people there were expecting us. .
. . .or at least, that we had permission
to enter that area.

But there were so many people
that it just seemed like three blocks
would take forever.

Anne said she had an idea.
We were at a store or restaurant
that I think she owned.
It was higher than the rest of the places,
sort of like on a plateau.
She then came out with two giant animals:
A Giant Giraffe and a Giant Ostrich.
She said that we would ride these animals,
that they could walk quickly over all of the venders and peoples.

She mounted the ostrich
and I rode the Giraffe.
We decided that we would each ride at our own pace
but would wait for each other
once we reached each corner.

The first street we had to cross
was right there where her restaurant was.
Basically, the giant animals
just had to take a stop down
to get off of the plateau
and then just cross the street.
She managed fine,
but I couldn't get the Giant Giraffe
to step down and cross.
She came back
and showed me how to guide the animal.

Once I knew how to direct the Giant Giraffe
I managed just fine.
I got the Giraffe to step down
and cross the street.
We proceeded just fine.
When we arrived at the first street corner
I paused to wait for Anne and her Giant Ostrich.
I didn't see her anywhere.

I looked ahead to see if she went on ahead of us.
I looked down the other street
to see if she had already turned and gone to the left.
And then I looked back
to where we started from.

She was still on the plateau
at the restaurant.
Her Ostrich sat down
and just wouldn't get up.

I decided to go back
and see what had happened.

As I neared the plateau
I saw yet another giant animal.
This was a Giant Lion.
He was scratching his claws,
as housecats do.
I think he was one of Anne's special animals as well.

I stepped up on to the platuea with my Giant Giraffe
and saw that the Giant Ostrich
was simply too tired and just wanted to rest.

The funny thing about this dream
is that no one thought that these giant animals
were strange or out of place.
The people just saw them
as a normal part things.

So. . .
What do these animals represent?
Why did I get to ride the Giant Giraffe?
Who is Anne?
(I don't know her in my waking life.)
And why did she get the Giant Ostrich?
Why was the Ostrich tired?
What of the Lion?
What is this restricted area we were going to?
Why didn't we end up getting there?
And what was this street festival/fair about?

Selling the Family Business

This dream was unusual.
My family in this dream
wasn't my family in real life.
In this dream,
all of these people were unknown to me real life.

My father was a tubby Greek gentleman.
And I had three brothers.
(In the awake world I have two brothers.)

We had a family business
that was going under.
I'm not sure what it was,
but I think it had something to do
with pet supplies or pet food.

I worked in the family business,
but I also had a job outside of the business.
So,
I didn't depend on this for my income.

An offer came from a large company
to buy the family business.
Except for one of my brothers,
no one in the family wanted to accept the offer.

I think my brother only saw the dollar signs.
He really wasn't too concerned
with what was best for everyone.
He just knew that he would receive
a significant chunk of change
if the business were sold.

I had another brother
was running for City Council.
He didn't want to sell
because he was using the family name.
He really had no business running for office.
He just wanted the fame of being in local politics.
Selling the business
wouldn't be good for his political name,
or so he thought.

Another brother didn't really want to sell.
But also realized that some sort of comment
needed to be made to the public.
The press had gotten wind of the offer
and started to follow us everywhere,
asking if we were going to sell.
He made some comments to the press like,
"we're examining all options,"
"we're taking all things into consideration."
He didn't really say anything.

A secretary who worked for us
always avoided the subject of children.
We never knew why.
Another of our workers found some candy
stuffed in the cushions in the couch in her office.
Only he realized that it wasn't candy at all.
It was drugs.
He said this is how the drug pushers
sell to children.
He wraps it up as candy
and then the kids get hooked.
The secretary burst into tears.
Amidst her weeping
she told us that that is how she lost her child.
Her son had died after a drug overdose
taking what he thought was candy.

At that point my father realized
that we had to sell the family business.
It would give everyone a new start.
It would bring jobs to the area
(something my brother running for office
could use in his political pitch).
And it would just give us more time
to be family,
not just business partners.

And I don't know what this means,
but my father wore white throughout this dream.
Sort of like that white suite Col Sanders wears. . .

So,
What does this all mean?
What's up with that white suite?
What does a family business symbolize?
Who were these people who in real life aren't my people?
And what of this child that died?