In a dream this morning I was leaving a fancy hotel with my wife; and they didn't want us there. There were all these beautiful white flowers in a giant vase and my wife said, Oh this one's broken and she broke off a branch with the flower on it and walked out with it. I thought it was sort of cool that she did it. My wife is streetsmart. Then as we were going out I passed a restaurant and a woman said to me, "You're Jewish aren't you?" And I said, "Yes." And she said, "My daughter told me. She can tell these things. Your people have a lot of problems–and you've got to work on that."
I talked about the dream with my wife and she pointed out that my mother is also streetsmart, and doesn't always play by the Marquis of Queensberry rules. In fact, The one strong association I have between the dream and real life is
that when my wife and I were in contract to buy the house we're in, I
brought my mother to see it, and the owner was not pleased we were
here, but my mother went up to the white lilac that was then blooming
and broke off a branch of it to take with her. I was embarrassed. But
she got that lilac, didn't she?
My wife says the point of the dream is I forgive her for something I don't forgive my mother for, and I have to love that aspect of Jewishness if I'm going to heal myself, let alone heal the Jews. The Yiddish word for thief is "gonif" and though judgmental, it has some positive resonance….
