Skirts and Scares

This one's a case of an interesting chain reaction - are you ready?

Okay, here goes:

Yesterday, at work, I got the CD of all the pics they took at the intercultural training seminar. I once mentioned here how interesting the whole intercultural issue is to me, and since it's also become an area that's being explored where I work, I've naturally gotten involved. So yesterday, I saw the CD full of pictures, and I realized that they had taken lots of pictures of me, and what I noticed - what I always notice sooner or later if I study myself in pictures - is that I am very very BASIC. There's no elegance to me. I'm sort of primitive, compared to other people, who look modern and sophisticated. I wished there weren't so many pictures of me on that CD. But at the same time, I kinda liked what I saw about myself. Maybe I'm primitive, but I'm really REAL. Maybe I'm not elegant, but I'm expressive. Car said that there's an energy that radiates from me! WHOA!

Anyway, I forgot about it and went to bed. But during sleep, it all came out. I dreamt I was at the school, and one of the coordinators came up to me and said, "You know, in all these years, I've never seen you in a skirt. Don't you have even one skirt you could wear to work sometime?" And I answered, "Well, of course I have some skirts. I'll wear one tomorrow."

But then, as often happens in dreams, the scene cut abruptly to a dire situation, where I was standing on the outside ledge of a very high building. I must have been on the 20th floor at least. The wind was whipping around with stinging urgency, and I was really cold and of course scared to death of falling... plus, the ledge was this wooden beam that was cracked right down the middle. So I started pounding on a window, and a man came to the window, and I called out, "Please, please open the window and let me in! I'm going to fall!" So he opened the window, and the beam started to split, but I grabbed onto the window sill and managed to haul myself over it and inside to safety.

Then my alarm went off and I woke up.

So I was thinking about the dream all morning, wondering what it meant, knowing full well that the only one who can interpret one's dream is the dreamer him/herself. It didn't take me long to put it all together. Can you see the sequence?

First, the CD and my realization about my drab attire... and then in the dream, feeling pressured to dress more elegantly, and then the zigzag to the opposite side, where I was in a situation where I needed more protection than a flimsy skirt and dainty shoes (although, come to think of it, I'm still not sure what I was wearing in that scene in the dream, pants or a skirt!). I realized once and for all that the reason I dress the way I do is so that I will always be ready for disaster! If anything happened where I needed to get dirty, or climb buildings, or whatever, I wouldn't be able to do it in a skirt, no matter what you see in the movies where women exert themselves in all sorts of dangerous, difficult, physically challenging kind of situations in a mini-skirt! I wouldn't be able to run in high heels, or take a fall or make my way through an insect-filled jungle in a skirt, the way I can in my trusty jeans or slacks and good walking shoes and socks. No, I need to be prepared! I need to know that if disaster strikes, if the world starts to come to an end, I'll be able to face whatever I have to do to survive, and not be hampered by discomfort. That's right! I need to be wearing my drab but totally wearable, durable, comfortable clothes and strong dependable shoes!


Aren't dreams amazing?