I had the dream again last night.
I was on vacation with my wife and youngest son, and we had decided to go on a group tour of a local beach (in hindsight, not really sure why you would go on a group tour of a beach) and somehow I got separated from the group (again, in hindsight, not sure how you can get disconnected from a group tour of a beach, but everything seems plausible in a dream).
Well a couple of minutes into the separation, I found myself smack in the middle of a watering hole for alligators (or crocodiles, I don’t really care to know the difference, they both represent the thing I am most scared of in life). The photo above gives you an idea of what I was dealing with.
I tried to stay calm, and it seemed as if the alligators were content to jsut leave me alone. So I thought if I could just quietly find my way out of here, I would be ok. Unfortunately, as I was walking, I disturbed a baby alligator (unlike most baby animals, this was not cute) that was trying to sleep.
Apparently the alligator’s mom did not take kindly to this, and started coming towards me. She had also somehow beckoned all her fellow alligators to join in on the stampede. I started running, and in a flash I magically found myself back on the beach with the tour group. When I tried to explain to my wife where I had been, she wasn’t buying it. I tried to take her back to where all the gators were, but I couldn’t find them.
It was just about then that I woke up from the nightmare.
This is the second dream I’ve had about alligators in the past month or so, and while I can’t recall what triggered the previous one, my guess is that last night’s dream was caused by that frightening video out of Florida showing a behemoth of an alligator at some nature preserve.
While the sighting has sparked an increase in visitors to the park, in my case, it’s sparked an increase in my fear of such creatures, and in the number of nightmares it looks I am destined to live with.
And to make matters worse, while I was putting this post together, I came across this story of a dental nurse who became an alligator catcher. As if I already didn’t feel like a wimp for not wanting to be within 100 miles of an alligator, here’s a young woman who loves alligators, and has caught a 900 pound one and released it back into nature. It looks like I’ll have to start taking more Scottish showers.
I’m hoping that writing about alligators is a way for me to confront my fears and as a result, the nightmares will end.
But I’m curious if there’s any deep meaning to such dreams.
Is it my subconscious telling me to not move to Florida when I retire? After all, the presence of alligators is one of the things that changed my mind about possibly retiring to Hilton Head.
Feel free to laugh at me, but we’ve all got our fears.
Some people are scared of snakes.
Some people are scared of alligators.
Some people are scared of running out of money during retirement.
Some people are scared of writing a blog and having no on read it.
Some people are scared of not having enough followers on Twitter.
Me, I’m scared of all those things.
Borden's Blather 